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I LIBRARY OF CONGRKSS. | 

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I UNITRD STATES OF AMERICA. J 



REMARKS 

7 



ON THE 



SCIENCE OF HISTORY 



FOLLOWED BY AN 
A PRIORI 



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BOSTON: 
WM. CROSBY AND H. P. NICHOLS. 

Ill WASHINGTON STREET. 

1849. 

J 



^ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1848, by 

Wm. Crosby, and H. P. Nichols, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



TO 



REPUBLICAN AND PHILOSOPHER, 



THIS VOLUME 



IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 



BY THE AUTHOR. 



REMARKS ON THE 



The Series by Nines. 

Desire, according to Buchez, the first Pres- 
ident of the present French National Assen)- 
bly, is a naoveraent of the will, an outbreak, 
and energetic operation, of the active principle, to- 
ward something we have not as yet. 

When we do not understand our desire, we are 
conscious of uneasiness, doubt, and trouble : as 
soon however as the intelligence begins to com- 



* The materials requisite for the construction of the 
*' Remarks" and " Autobiography" contained in this book, 
may be found in the works of Jacob Boehme, Fabre 
d'OLivET and P. J. B. Buchez :^ — The Author takes, 
therefore, this opportunity to protest against being inden- 
tified, in the mind of any reader, with the hero of the sup- 
posed Autobiography. 



VI REMARKS ON THE 

prebend the blind appetency, a fornaula for it 
rises to ibe mind, and it becomes transformed at 
once into acceptation, hope, determinate volition, 
aspiration in view of an ideal, a conviction, a form 
of faith, a belief, &c. — U becomes moreover a thesis 
proposed for reasoning. Thus the movement for 
the comprehension of a desire, may be consid- 
ered as containing the progress and completion of 
a distinct event, viz. the acquisition of a clearly 
defined sentiment ; and, for this reason, that 
movement may be subdivided as follows : (1) 
The appetency, or longing tendency, toward 
something we do not possess, and of whose na- 
ture we have no clear apprehension, (2) The 
reasoning we institute within ourselves to discover 
the origin of our uneasiness — to discover also the 
object which is necessary for the satisfaction of 
our desires, (3) The full and conscious act of 
desire, which is the operation of instinctive ten- 
dencies, with an open knowledge of the object 
desired. 

The progress of any event, in which men 
are actors, takes place always in three stages : 
the first is the great epoch of Desire, which is 
subdivided, as we have seen, into three sub 
epochs ; the second is the great epoch of Rea- 
soning, wherein are discovered the ways and 



SCIENCE OF HISTORY. vii 

means by which the object necessary in order 
to the gratification of desire, may be obtained ; 
and the last is the great epoch of Execution 
or Realization. The epochs of Reasoning and 
Execution, are, like that of Desire, each of ihem 
subdivided into three sub epochs — as shall be 
fully exemplified in the sequel. 

These three Grand Epochs, each of which is 
composed of three sub epochs, form, when taken 
together, the great Logical Series by Nines, the 
series of Buchez.*- 

No example, in illustration of the movement of 
this series, would carry so much conviction to the 
mind of the reader, as one that could be verified 
by each individual from his own private experi- 
ence : such an example is possible for us, for the 
ordinary process of a religious experience, lends 
itself very readily for the purposes of scientific in- 
vestigation, and, moreover, fulfills the requisite 
conditions. To test, therefore, the correctness of 
the serial order and movement, we will proceed to 
construct, by the a priori methods, a sort of im- 

*Introduction to the Science of History, by P. J. 
B. BucHEZ.— 2 vols. 8 mo. Paris, 1842. 



VIU REMARKS ON THE 

aginary spiritual Autobiography. And we shall 
take the liberty, for the sake of securing facility 
of composition, and avoiding circumlocution, to 
commence at once by speaking in the first 
person. — 

The method of writing universal history under 
the form of a biography, and of writing biography 
under the forms of universal history, is philosoph- 
ically correct. 

As it was necessary for the race to go through 
the Mosaic dispensation, in order to become pre- 
pared for the reception of Christianity, so it was 
necessary for it to go through the Patriarchal dis- 
pensation, in order to become prepared for the re- 
ligion revealed through Moses. In like manner, 
in the experience of the private Christian, the un- 
derstanding of the Old Testament must pave the 
way for the understanding of the New. Every 
thing moves forward in regular progressions. He 
who thoroughly understands the present epoch, 
must have reproduced, and lived through, in his 
private experience, all the religions, dispensations, 
aud civilisations, that preceded it. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who has made a thor- 
ough study of this subject, says, in his remarkable 



SCIENCE OF HISTORY. IX 

essay on History : '' There is a relation between 
" the hours of life, and the centuries of time. — 
'' All inquiry into antiquity, — all curiosity re- 
'' specting the pyramids, the excavated cities, 
'' Stonehenge, the Ohio circles, Mexico, Mem- 
'' phis, is the desire to do away this wild, pre - 
'^ posterous There or Then, and introduce in its 
'' place the Here and the Now. It it to banish 
'' the not mc, and supply the me ... . Belzo- 
'^ ni digs and measures in the mummy pits and 
"pyramids of Thebes, until he can see an end 
*' of the difference between the monstrous work 
'' and himself. When he has satisfied himself^ 
'' in general and in detail, that it was made by 
" such a person as himself, so armed and so mo- 
" lived, and to ends to which he himself in given 
'* circumstances should also have worked, his 
" problem is then solved .... Every step in 
" private experience, flashes a light on what 
'' great bodies of men have done, and the crises 
" in individual life, refer to national crises. . . . 
^^ Every revolution was first a thought in one 
'' man's mind, and when the same thought occurs 
'^ to another man, it is the key to that era. Ev- 
'' ery reform was once a private opinion, and 
" when it shall be a private opinion again, it will 
'' solve the problem of the age .... We, as 
" we read, must become Greeks, Romans, Turks, 



X REMARKS ON THE 

*^ priest and king, martyr and executioner, must 
" fasten these images to some reality in our se- 
'' cret experience, or we shall see nothing, learn 
^' nothing, keep nothing .... The student is 
'' to read history actively and not passively, to 
*' esteem his own life the text, and books, the 
'' commentary." 



Jacob Boehme indicates, in his table of the Ten 
Forms of Fire, the most abstract movement of the 
series by nines. It is necessary that we should 
subjoin this table, dividing it off into epochs, ac- 
cording to the principles of Buchez : 



The ten Forms of Fire.* 

Point of Departure. 

I'oRM 1. The Eternal Liberty (having, and itself being, 
the Will) signified by Shem, 

* See Notes A and B. 



SCIENCE OF HISTORY. XI 

First Grand Epoch. [Desire.] 

Form 2. The being Desirous, signified by Arphaxad. 

Form 3. The sharp Drawing, causing the opposite Will, 
signified by Salah, 

Form 4. The Flash, or Lightning, caused by the Lib- 
erty, and causing the Anguish, signified by 
Eber. 

Second Grand Epoch. [Reasoning.] 

Form 5. Eternal Nature, or Great Mystery, whence the 
two Kingdoms proceed, signified by Peleg. 

Form 6. The two Principles of Fire (substance) and 
Light (manifestation), signified by Regu. 

Form 7. The Magia (self-acting Power) making its own 

Looking-Glass (self-consciousness :) as Life 

is of Fire and Water, signified by Serug. 

Third Grand Epoch. [Realization,] 

Form 8. The Turba that breaks the Outward Life, 

Strength and Omnipotence, signified by 

Nahor. 

Form 9. The Virgin Tincture : Love Fire : Life of 

Angels and Holy Souls, signified by Terah. 

Form 10. The Entrance into the Holy Ternary, corpo- 

rising of Angels and Holy Souls, signified 

by Abram, 

This table will be fully explained in the Auto- 
biography which follows. 



4 






AN A PRIORI 

□ri' © B E © (S IE . 

FIRST GRAND EPOCH. [dESIRE.] 

First sub epoch : — that of desire in desire. 

I was accustomed to attend church regularly. I 
became impressed, after a while, with the tenor of 
the preaching, and desired to be regenerated — to 
come into communion with God. — This sub 
epoch was characterised by a sentiment of dissat- 
isfaction, a vague want of something, a desire af- 
ter the Divine Life, while, in truth, I had many 
doubts as to whether any Living God existed. 
I wished to be regenerated, but questioned within 
myself whether the whole theory of religion were 
not the mere invention of some wonderful man, 
who promulgated it, not for any truth it contained, 
but on account of the benefits he conceived it 

would bring to the world. 

1 



2 AN A PRIORI 

I read Lowth on Hebrew Poetry, the effect of 
which was to make me desire very earnestly to 
obtain that state of spirituality which was possess- 
ed by the Hebrew Prophets. I endeavored^ 
therefore, willed earnestly (as a magnetizer wills 
when he wishes to put a patient to sleep,) to re- 
ceive the Spirit, to be converted: so great were 
:my efforts, and so unintermitting, that my physi- 
cal system became deranged. I woke up once 
in the night, under a strong nervous excitement, 
and thought I saw tongues of fire hovering over 
the coverlet, like those which descended upon the 
apostles on the day of Pentecost. 

I had a tooth-ache some days after this, and 
finding myself in a moment of faith, prayed to be 
relieved, on the strength of the promise in the 
gospel to the prayer of faith; and was immediate- 
ly relieved. I prayed suddenly — before the ac- 
cess of belief could have time to pass away, and 
give place to doubt — and was relieved suddenly: 
this strengthened me very much. 

I was engaged, about this time, on a matter of 
business that would secure me a considerable and 
permanent income, if I could bring it to a favor- 
able conclusion. Success, however, depended 
on so many contingencies beyond my control, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. § 

that 1 became altogether bewildered, and did not 
know what to do. At last a sermon in which 
Jacob's prayer was quoted, threw some light on 
my difficulties, — '^ Jacob vowed a vow, saying, 
if God will be with me, and will keep me in this 
way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and 
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my 
father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be 
my God: and this stone which I have set up for 
a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that He 
will give me, I will surely give a tenth unto him." 
I also vowed a vow, in imitation of Jacob's, say- 
ing — If God will cause me to prosper in this bu- 
siness in which I am now engaged, I will devote 
to his service, year by year, one tenth of the per" 
manent income I shall derive from it; and if he 
will regenerate me, and change my heart, then the 
Lord shall be my God. 

Remembering that the Lord always makes use 
of means, I took what I considered proper meas- 
ures for ensuring the success of my designs; nev- 
ertheless, the whole matter miscarried, and fell 
through. But this was what I had expected, for 
my faith this time was strong. I said God has 
done this to try me; for, if all had gone off 
easily, I should have supposed I had by my own 
shrewdness, accomplished the work; and thus I 



4 AN A PRIORI 

should have been led to despise my vow: now, 
however, if the Lord sees fit to retrieve my af- 
fairs, I shall discern his hand in the work, and 
shall know he has accepted my vow, fulfilling on 
his part the conditions of the first clause of the 
covenant. And behold, in a few days, at the 
first efibrt I made, all came out according to my 
wish. 

Oiilsilliio 

Second sub epoch : — that of reasoning in desire. 

As the first stage is characterised by vague 
desire, so this stage is characterised by reasoning 
to render the desire no longer vague, but clear, 
and well defined, tending toward a known object. 

In the course of reasoning instituted to dis- 
cover the object of my desire, viz. the Living 
God, I laid down, at starting, the postulates which 
follow: (1) God is just, (2) God is absolute. I 
felt I could not love God, and thus come into 
communion with him, without first obtaining a 
knowledge of his existence, and, to a certain ex- 
tent, of his character. But a war broke out be- 
tween my postulates. The postulate, God is ab- 
solute, gave birth to a perfect system of neces- 
sity, and, if there was evil in the world, made 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 5 

God the author of it. I felt that God had given 
me a certain character, according to his will; and 
had placed me in certain circumstances, still ac- 
cording to his will: this character, in concurrence 
with these circumstances, occasioned certain ac- 
tions which T acknowledged to be wrong. But 
whose was the wrong? Mine? — Not at all: I 
was a mere passive agent in the hands of God, 
and if there was any wrong, it was attributable, 
not to me, but to the cause that made me act. 
But, says the Theologian, God will damn you if 
you act contrary to his preceptive will. I answer: 
— If, however, I act according to his determina- 
tive will, is not his preceptive will absurd, if it 
condemn my action? And, if I act according to 
his determinative will, not being able indeed, to 
do otherwise, being a mere passive instrument in 
his hands, and he damn me for violating his pre- 
ceptive will — which he knows I cannot obey, ani 
which he himself rendered it impossible for me to 
obey — is he not unjust? 

I tried to reconcile this difficulty by supposing 
I might have been free in some former state of 
existence, from which I had fallen by my own 
free act, and that God — in some mysterious way 
which I could not understand, — was giving me a 

chance for restoration, and that I ought, for this- 
*1 



AN A PRIORI 

reason, to be thankful for existence without free- 
dom. For still I sought communion with God, 
and it was my earnest desire to justify his ways. 
— This hypothesis was a mere reproduction of the 
doctrine which prevailed throughout India, Egypt, 
and Greece, in the second sub epoch of the first 
grand epoch of the world's history — the stage of 
reasoning in desire. This movement is half-shown, 
and half-concealed, in the doctrine of Plato that 
all our true knowledge is reminiscence — recollec- 
tion of knowledge we possessed in some pre-exist- 
ing state from which we have fallen: also in his 
argument for the immortality of the soul, based 
on the same dogma of pre-existing life. The doc- 
trine that this world is a purgatory^ and that men 
are a race of fallen angels, pervaded all antiquity: 
but the world has moved forward since then, and 
the hypothesis satisfied me for a moment only. 



What proof is there (I then proceeded to in- 
quire) that there is any God at all? The argu- 
ment from design proves nothing, for when we say 
we see design^ .we beg the whole question ; for, 
without doubt, design implies a designer. Perhaps 
the powers of Nature are adequate to the pro- 
duction of all the means adapted to ends which 
we discover in the universe. But, asks the 
Theologian, w^ho made Nature? We answer^ 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 7 

who made God? If Nature be wonderful, and 
for that reason must have been produced, how 
much more wonderful is God! We always have 
to go back to that which is self-existing: and no 
one denies that there is something which is self- 
existing ; but the question always presents itself: 
— Is this self-existing something alive, creative, 
providential, self-conscious? or is it a blind force 
that acts always according to immutable Law? 
Without doubt, matter is unlimited in extent, and, 
in this sense, infinite; and the forces of Nature 
mould it into an innumerable number of worlds. 
Would it be at all astonishing if, from the univer- 
sal dice-box, out of an innumerable number of 
throws, there should be thrown out one world in- 
fiinitely perfect? Nay, does not the calculus of 
probabilities prove to us that one such world out 
of an infinite number, must be produced of ne- 
cessity? This world is indeed very far from be- 
ing perfect. But, answers the Theologian, we 
have no issue here; for you acknowledge God, 
since you ascribe to Chance the attributes of God. 
Very well, I reply, but why darken counsel with 
words without knov»'ledge? — the question is this. 
Is Chance — or God, if you are pleased so to call 
it J alive, providential? The God of the Theolo- 
gians is not only creative, be is also alive, intelli- 
gent, good, self-conscious, just, &c. The evi- 



8 AN A PRIORI 

dence from Nature, of the divine existence, did 
not seem to me to be conclusive; and that from 
the testimony and miracles of inspired men, seem- 
ed more than unsatisfactory. If God is good, I 
questioned, and has made a belief in him to be 
essential to our salvation, why has he not mani- 
fested himself more clearly to his creatures? 
Why has he made belief to depend upon evi- 
dence, and yet have given so few indications of 
his existence. 

This, I argued, is the conclusion of the whole 
matter: God — if he really exist — is good, alive, 
self-conscious, and governs all things according to 
his benevolent and holy providence; but the w^orld 
shows no indications of such a benevolent and 
holy Providence. This earth appears to be a 
hell, or at best a planet condemned — a sort of 
purgatory; it is filled with violence, tyranny and 
injustice, and yet God, if he exist, is absolute 
sovereign, and has willed that things should be as 
they are! — Therefore there is no God. 

Yet, I continued, if there be a Supreme Pow- 
er [who is called God, though he violate constant- 
ly the rule of immutable right] his name deserves 
no reverence, and his power no respect. It be- 
longs to him to damn me unjustly, and it belongs 



AUTOBIOGEAPHY. 9 

10 me to suffer the pains of Hell with fortitude, 
protesting, in the dignity of conscious rectitude, 
against the unholy usurpations of the tyrant of 
heaven. These are our relative positions : and I 
am in my true place, only when I exalt myself 
in my opposition, postulating myself as the per- 
sonal enemy of Almighty God. — But if some are 
elected according to the Divine Foreknowledge, 
from before the foundation of the world, to eter- 
nal joy, and if these, led by self-interest, acqui- 
esce in the decisions of Supreme Force, receiv- 
ing an unending recompense in heavenly man- 
sions — what then ? Why then, these elect are of 
the earth, carnal, and while in heaven, will expe- 
rience a heaven of the body, which they will ap- 
preciate, but a brutifying hell of the soul, of which, 
because of their earthly and unintelligent nature, 
they will be unconscious : while we, who are 
damned, will feel the corrosive fire in our outward 
frames, but a serene heaven within. The elect 
will be slaves, but the damned will be as Gods, 
and their intense pain will but exalt their essential 
diivnity. Moreover, if some of the brethren in 
the Churches, and certain persons among the 
teachers and superintendants of the Sunday 
Schools, who seem to be in high repute in the 
hingdom of heaven on earth, are to have like 
positions of authority in the kingdom of heaven 



10 AK A fRlOKI 

above, I should undoubtedly request respectfully 
to be permitted to go the other way. And I 
must confess that if the heavenly state is to be an 
infinite and uninterrupted orthodox prayer-meeting 
[for this is what is held up upon earth as its sym^ 
bol] I have little or no taste for its enjoyments. 

Having adopted these conclusions, I hoped 
that no Living God existed, but had misgivings. 
What was it most becoming in me, under the in- 
fluence of these misgivings, to do ? Evidently 
I must strengthen my soul, I must become inured 
to pain, I must possess an unbending will, I must 
train myself to bear infinite and unending pain ; 
for, if God lived. I w^as sure of hell. If God 
lived, hell was my choice. I therefore began to 
train myself to mental and spiritual endurance : I 
became stern, unbending, and proud of my self- 
depending dignity. 

At once, a whole theory of universal movement 
presented itself to my mind. I regarded myself 
as self-existing, though finite ; I regarded myself 
as the true ground and origin of all my own forces, 
and exalted myself as a god in the strength of my 
own self-subsisting essence. I admitted, it is 
true, that other men were gods also — at least 
those of them who had internal force sufficient 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 11 

10 enable them to assert their divinity. Every 
object in nature was a god, but each stood in its 
own relative rank. 1 looked upon all things as 
distinct and separate substances. I did not be- 
lieve in one substance, of which each individual 
partook ; but held that each individual thing was 
a separate, self-existing substance by itself — and 
a self-existing substance is a god, by universal 
definition. To me, the forces seemed to inhere 
in the various substances, and each seemed to act 
from itself, by its[own power,, as a god. I believed 
in no Supreme God, nor in any Divine Order, 
but thought the universe to be one democratic re- 
public, where each citizen (animate or inanimate) 
did the thing that w^as right in its own eyes. The 
Laws of nature were phenomena resulting from 
the action of these independent powers, but were 
nothing if considered in themselves. The uni- 
verse being in operation, and all the powers ex- 
erting an activity, an order would prevail which 
would be a mere result of the prevalence of the 
stronger powers, taken in connection with the 
check which w^ould be put on their operation by 
those which were weaker. Thus the order of 
nature was — not something to be respected^ but 
something to be created by individuals. The indi- 
vidual was not to obey the order of nature, but to 
act out its own will, and thus create that order. 



12 AN A PRIORI 

I felt myself to be a citizen of this republic, a god 
acting fronri myself, in concurrence with gods act- 
ing from themselves. I was capable of suffering, 
and so were most of them — at least those were in 
whom I was most interested. It behooved me, 
therefore, to study their strength, that I might un- 
dertake no contest in which I should be vanquish- 
ed : and it certainly behooved them to respect me 
^n like manner. We were all independent gods ; 
and there was no right but strength, and no proof 
of right but success. I was to respect them for 
my own good, so far as not to undertake anything 
in which I should miscarry ; but, whatever I did, 
I did it from my own will, and for my own sov- 
ereign good pleasure. There was no truth ex- 
cept what some force made to be truth : and truth 
changed as different powers obtained the ascen- 
dency — for there were as many truths as there 
were powers in the world. I had my truth, and, 
in proportion to my ability, I imposed it upon 
others. I was a god ; and, if I could have at- 
tained to govern the whole universe, my will 
would have been the rule of universal truth, — 
what was the so called Supreme God, if not a be- 
ing of the same order with myself, only transcend- 
ently powerful ? At all events, my truth reached 
as far as my power reached. Henceforth, I 
would measure myself with any power which 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 18 

should bring what purported to be truth, and the 
measure of power would be the measure of truth. 
I made, therefore, my religion to accord with the 
good pleasure of my will, and prepared to main- 
tain it by force. The Supreme God, if he ex- 
isted, could damn me in hell, and his power was 
sufficient to keep me there : but he had no power 
over my will. Here I could defy him. In hell, 
the war between power and power would contin- 
ue : my body would indeed be subdued, but in 
my soul I would defy him. I would still retain 
sovereignty in the sphere of the mind : for where 
I had power to reign, there I was lawful sover- 
eign. 

I looked upon nature, and saw that all the un- 
intelligent, and inanimate powers, were inexora- 
ble. The sun attracted the planets exactly to the 
extent of his attractive force, and the planets 
obeyed just so far as they were obliged so to do ; 
and they resisted in the exact measure they were 
enabled to resist by their own centrifugal force. 
All things exacted the full measure of their digni- 
ty : they obeyed in resignation and silence when 
the balance of force was against them, and ex- 
acted obedience to the extreme measure of their 
prevailing force, when the balance of power was 
in their favor. God was inexorable, punishing 
2 



14 AN A PRIOKI 

every violation of his will ; for every transgres- 
sion brought its exact recompense of punishment. 
Throughout the universe, all was stern, inexora- 
ble, merciless* 

I asked, what is the true course for me to fol- 
low, placed as I am, a god among gods ? I an- 
swered thus : I am a substance that may be view- 
ed under two aspects ; for I am (1) a substance 
exerting power over other substances, and capa- 
ble of inflicting suffering on them ; I am also (2) 
a substance upon which other substances exert 
power — upon which other substances inflict pain. 
I must train myself, consequently, (1) To the 
habit of prompt, inevitable, inexorable execution, 
and (2) To the habit of patient, unmurmuring 
endurance. 

In execution, therefore, I will be prompt. I 
will have no misgivings ; and my authority over 
another shall be measured by my power of inflict- 
ing sufl^ering upon him. I will study how I can 
make men suffer. I will be merciless, and will 
pursue my enemy as far as comports with my 
safety. If it is dangerous to kill him — if I am in 
a country where laws prevail — I will shed no 
blood ; but if no danger to myself intervene, then 
will I kill him as I would kill a dog. My eye 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 15 

shall know no pity. I will have no rule of con- 
duct other than a cold and deliberate calculation 
of the chances of ultimate success. I will no 
longer investigate the fantastical principles of what 
are called wrong and right, but will study how far 
rapid execution, under the circumstances of the 
present age, and state of the world, will enable 
me to inflict suffering upon men. 

But, I asked, how will I be able to sustain the 
harrassing war which I shall be obliged to carry 
on, if my hand is thus openly lifted against every 
man, and every man's hand against mine ? I an- 
swered in this way : — My demands shall be mod- 
erate ; I will be willing to be poor, to live unob- 
served by men, and to be satisfied with what is 
necessary for the wants of my body. I will en- 
deavor to avoid envy, and will wound no man's 
feelings ; I w^ill be kind and courteous to all, the 
friend of the poor, and the enemy of none but 
the rich and the insolent ; and I will always 
maintain the cause of the weak against the op- 
pressor. If I act thus, who will desire to injure 
me ? Who, except the tyrants and oppressors, 
will ever oppose me ? 

And thus will I cause the opposition of tyrants 
and oppressors to cease, so far as I am concern- 



16 AN A PRIORI. 

ed : — I will imitate the inexorable powers of na- 
ture : if a man act against those powers, he will 
suffer the consequence ; he that treads upon fire 
will be burned, he that falls in the sea will be 
drowned. It is of no avail to humble one's self 
before fire or water ; for the natural powers are 
inexorable. I also will be a fire to my enemies ; 
I will be inexorable, cruel, merciless, without hu- 
man feeling — nay, on the contrary, I will exult in 
the suffering I inflict. To my enemies, suprema- 
cy and revenge shall be the law and aim of my 
life. If expediency keep me' quiet for a while, 
the will for swift retribution shall never slumber : 
by day and by night, will I repeat to myself that 
I have not yet obtained full vengeance. As the 
stars move regularly and inevitably in their courses, 
so will I move regularly and inevitably to my 
revenge. Human feeling shall have no place in 
me, but give way to the calculus, when I think of 
my enemies. My resolution, making allowance for 
the difference in the state of civilization, may be 
well expressed in the words of Lamech : 

Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ! 

Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech ! 

For the least wrong done unto me, I will kill ; 

For a wound I will kill a man. 

For a deadly wound I will kill a child even ; 

For if Cain avengeth himself sevenfold, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 17 

Surely Lamech shall avenge himself seventy and sev- 
enfold. 

I was now in the nioveraent of private experi- 
ence which corresponds to the great movement of 
the Chaldean civilization. The Chaldeans, ac- 
cording to the prophet Habakkuk, were '^ a bitter 
and hasty nation, a people imperious and self- 
willed, whose judgments and decrees proceeded 
from themselves." 

The prophet says of them : 

He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, 

He enlargeth his desire as hell, 

And is as death — and cannot be satisfied. 

And again : 

They shall come up, all of them, in troops, for vio-? 

lence : 
Their glance is ever forward ! 
They gather captives like the sand ! 
They scoflfat kings, 
And princes are a scorn unto them. 
They deride every strong hold : 
They cast up mounds of earth and take it. — 
Then his spirit renews itself, 
He transgresses and is guilty ; 
For this his Power is his God. 

Indeed, according to Buchez, this Chaldean> 
civilization preceded that of India and Egypt- 

2* 



18 AN A PRIORI 

Buchez has a convenient method of discovering 
the civilization of the nations whose history has 
been forgotten, a method consisting in a simple 
application of the rule of three. All progressions 
may be counted either forward or backward ; if 
they increase in one direction, they must, of ne- 
cessity, decrease in the other. The civilization 
of India and Egypt, was one of relative inequality ^ 
being founded on the dogma of a fall ; the civili- 
zation of Christianity is one of equality^ for it is 
founded on the dogma of a redemption. From 
the Christian point of view, no man can be regard- 
ed as having fallen below the level of humanity, 
for Christ died for the sinner more especially : 
neither can any man be regarded as having raised 
himself altogether above the level — for it was ne- 
cessary that Christ should die for this man also. 

Now — to apply the series— as the Indian and 
Egyptian dispensation is to the Christian, so is 
the Christian dispensation to — what ? Verily we 
are not prepared to say. 

But this is taking the series in its increasing di- 
rection ; let us reverse it, and endeavor to find 
the character of the dispensation which preceded 
that of India and Egypt. — As the Christian civi- 
lization is to that of India and Egypt, that is, as 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 19 

equality is to relative inequality^ so is the civili- 
zation of India and Egypt to the truly primitive 
civilization, that is, so is relative inequality to — 
what ? Buchez answers, to absolute inequality^ 
to the state in which the human race was divided 
into two classes, mortal men, and mortal gods. 

The Goths considered themselves to be a na- 
tion of gods, and their national name indicates as 
much, since (as Fabre d' Olivet shows in his phi- 
losophical history) the words god and goth come 
from the same root. The higher classes in 
Greece, Rome, and, indeed, almost every coun- 
try, claimed to be descended from the gods. 
The Roman Senate claimed to be a body of di- 
vine men. This civilization, which has left its 
traces, not only in Greece and Rome, but also in 
the movement of our present epoch, was in its 
highest splendor in the most ancient times — times 
now almost forgotten by the historian. In those 
days, men lived, to a certain extent, in community^ 
not in that association in the harmony of christian 
love, to which we look forward now, knowing that 
paradise, and the garden of Eden,* are before us, 



*He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith 
unto the churches ! To him that overcometh, will I give 
to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the 
Paradise of God. Rev, 2 : 7. 



20 AN A PRIORI 

and not behind us in the past, but in a communism 
based on the mere knowledge of material inter- 
ests — for the philosophy of this epoch was mate- 
rialism, Sabianism. The Peruvians, who were 
governed by a dynasty of mortal gods, and who 
were in this form of civilization when their empire 
was destroyed, held all their lands from the crown. 
The manufactories of Babylon were carried on, 
in a certain manner, in community. In those 
days were built the great pyramidal towers, and 
the Cyclopean works which astonish the traveler in 
Europe and Asia. In those days, a species of 
slavery prevailed, infinitely more atrocious than 
anything that has since existed on the face of the 
earth : for then gigantic labors were accomplish- 
ed under the eye of a stern despotism, which 
would have been impossible in any other state of 
society. At that time were built the tower of 
Babel, and those eternal vestiges of tyranny, the 
pyramids of Egypt. The worship of this epoch 
was conducted on towers and pyramids, with hu- 
man sacrifices. This worship, carried every- 
where in the old world by the Phoenicians and 
Carthagenians, was reproduced in Mexico, under 
the Aztecs, where human sacrifices were offered 
on the platforms at the top of the pyramidal tow- 
ers — the victims being first slain, and then rolled 
down the great flights of steps. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 21 

The Chaldean worship was that of the inexora- 
ble powers of Nature — if worship it could be 
called : and their religion consisted, not in the 
service of the Living God, but in an endeavor to 
bring the occult powers of nature under the con- 
trol of the human will. Their priests were wiz- 
ards, and their ceremonies were the ceremonies 
of magic, a term derived from the word Magian^ 
the title attributed to the priestly caste. This 
age was fruitful in heroes and tyrants of the 
stamp of Nimrod, the hunter of men ; but it pro- 
duced no inspired prophets ; for there is no inspi- 
ration where men recognize no living and self- 
conscious God, superior to themselves. The 
Chaldeans had an abundance of magicians, wiz- 
ards, soothsayers, and witches, in whom the 
blind impulse of nature originated oracular speech- 
es, but no prophet. 

I had become — in this second sub-epoch of de- 
sire — a perfect Chaldean ; for I worshiped, with 
blind devotion, the dead god of the Babylonians, 
viz : the active powers of nature operating ac- 
cording to the laws of necessity. I looked upon 
myself as a mortal god, and upon the frequenters 
of the churches as men. I had no hesitation in 
affirming within myself that there was an infinite 
gulf between men, and a mortal god like myself. 



22 



AN A PRIORI 



Indeed, if I had received power at this lime, I 
should have made a tyrant after the order of Nim- 
rod. I cannot express the contempt I felt for 
those whose mean, ungenerous spirit, led them to 
acquiesce in the popular worship, through fear of 
hell. If I had held them in my hands, I would 
have crushed them without mercy, for I should 
have considered the greatest degradation as the 
condition most appropriate to them : yea, an 
oppression that would have destroyed them, would 
have found favor in my eyes. The world, by 
their destruction, might become a fit abode for 
the mortal gods, and a fit sphere for the display 
of generosity and god-like sentiment. In a world 
thus purified, exaltation of character might be- 
come the standard and measure of human dignity. 
And what generous, high-minded man, who held 
a mean-spiriled, fawning, servile wretch in his 
power, a wretch always accessible to the motive 
of fear, and never accessible to any higher mo- 
tive, would consider him fit for any position, save 
that of the vilest slave. Is there any communion 
possible between a worm, and a mortal god ? 



But I always retained some lingering doubt of 
the truth of this system : I always feared that 
there might indeed exist a Divine Tyrant who 
had power to damn in hell. If my Chaldean doc- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 23 

trine were true, then probably I should not exist 
at all after death. Perhaps I should join the uni- 
versal force that moves the worlds, and become 
lost in the general flood of electricity, or gravita- 
tion. Like would go to like. Every particle 
in my physical frame would go into new combina- 
tions with other matter, and the soul would return 
to the original force from which it emanated. 
Perhaps 1 might, in my future state, assist uncon- 
sciously in keeping the moon in her orbit. But 
if this doctrine were not true, if there were indeed 
a Living God in heaven, then hell was my portion. 
In that case, I saw hell at the end of my course, 
and I welcomed it. I frequently imagined myself 
in hell, a serene god, notwithstanding the burning 
brimstone ; and I gloried in the force of my will. 

The culture that resulted from all these reflec- 
tions, may be summed up in two points. (1) I 
trained myself to acruel, inexorable mercilessness, 
a suppression of all human feeling toward those 
whom I held to be my enemies. (2) I trained 
myself to spiritual strength and power of endur- 
ance, to contempt for the sufferings of the body, 
that I might, hereafter, when in hell, be able to 
rise serenely above the torments to which my 
earthly frame would be subjected, and calmly as- 
sert my essential divinity. 



24 AN A PRIORI 

I succeeded very well in this course of educa- 
tion of the will, for I acted on the true maxim : — 
'^ If a man wishes to possess a certain character, 
let him act as though he were already possessed 
of it, and he will possess it.'' I acted as though 
1 were merciless, and I became merciless : I 
acted as though I were able, with serenity of soul, 
to endure all physical pain, and, at last, I came to 
believe that no suffering could conquer me. This 
capacity of enduring pain was the main point ; for 
when I came to feel that I could be damned with- 
out flinching, I was at peace. What cared I for 
the future ? — I felt that I commanded my own 
soul, and enjoyed happiness that nothing could 
take from me. All the misery of the body, be- 
cause it was of an inferior order, could never 
equal the joy of my soul. Let misery be piled 
mountain high upon the outer man, the difference 
would be in favor of the soul, and would be clear 

Mh(Biro 
Third sub epoch : — that of execution in desire. 

This is the sub-epoch in which a clear and dis- 
tinct notion of the object desired, is actually ob- 
tained : this sub-epoch closes, therefore, the great 
movement of desire. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 25 

One evening, in the spring of 1839, 1 was 
walking, about a hundred yards in front of the 
house in which I lived, when suddenly, upon 
turning to go back, I fell — I felt no pain, no sick- 
ness of any kind, and immediately rose again to 
my feet. I fell again, though still without pain or 
sickness, and this time I found it difficult to rise. 
I then crept, as well as I could, on my hands and 
feet, into the house, got into bed, and went to 
sleep. In the morning I began to feel very ill, 
and sent my servant for assistance. The doctor 
came soon, and bled me in the arm, informing me 
that I had a remittant fever. I grew quite ill 
afterward, and remained several days confined to 
my bed, with my energies, both mental and phys- 
ical, completely prostrated. During this time, I 
was too unwell to think at all, and almost too un- 
well to remember anything. 

After a while, I recovered, and walked about 

a little in the fresh air. This motion enlivened 

me, and I began to feel the operation of the vital 

forces, so that I felt almost well. I immediately 

began, with my renovated strength, to carry on 

that education of the will which was now the main 

occupation of my life. I endeavored to imagine 

myself suffering the torments of hell, and rising 

superior to them through the force of spiritual 
3 



26 AN A PRIORI 

energy : I endeavored to put myself into the posi- 
tion of unflinching defiance. But it was all in 
vain, my mental energies were still prostrated by 
the remains of my fever. I felt no elasticity of 
will, I had no energy wherewith to hate, I could 
not raise a feeling of defiance. I still thought 
God to be a tyrant, but all my opposition to him 
was prostrated. I could no longer carry on the 
war. These reflections then passed through my 
mind : — Fever depends on the state of the body, 
no effort of will can save any man from it : what 
if God should first give me a remitting fever^ 

AND THEN DAMN ME IN MY STATE OE CONSEQUENT 

PROSTRATION, would he not then conquer both 
body and soul ? The empire of my soul is then 
not mine ; — God rules there as well as in the 
body. I, who acknowledge no right but prevail- 
ing might, am then conquered by might — I am 
driven from my last strong hold. I can defy 
even, only by permission, and only by strength 
given me by the superior power whom I defy. 
What a mockery of my Supreme Sovereignly in 
my own self-subsisting essence is this. If I submit, 
I am a slave ; if I defy, I am still a slave* I 
have no independant action ; I am a victim, not 
only according to the outer, but also according to 
the inner man. 



AUTOBlOaHAPHY. 27 

Biit God (and this reflection innpressed me pro- 
foundly) is evidently not then a power of the or- 
der I supposed. The Devil is a pouter of that 
order, and, if I rebel against God, he will bring 
me under the tyranny of the devil. If the devil 
and I are gods, then God is more than god ; for 
he is independant of us, while we are victims in 
his hands, dependant for all things upon him. 
Necessity reigns then within as well as without. 

Three things I had supposed to be distinct, (1) 
God, (2) Myself, an individual substance like 
God, though less powerful, and (3) The Rule 
of Right, established by the prevalence of the 
stronger powers of the universe. I had endeav- 
ored to establish the rule of right in opposition to 
God, by conquering him in the sphere of my own 
soul. But how w^ere all these high thoughts 
abased ! God was superior to all substances, for 
they vanished at his presence. There was no 
liberty where he came, for he was all and in all. 
He gave powers according to his pleasure, and 
powers prevailed according to his pleasure, and 
thus he created the rule of right according to his 
pleasure. How could I pretend to put him on 
trial — how could I pretend to judge him accord- 
ing to an immutable rule of right, when he him- 
self created that very rule of right (and, conse- 



28 AN A PRIORI 

quently was able to change it) according to his 
good pleasure ? I was indeed conquered — anni- 
hilated. I felt as though I were at the entrance 
of some dark and mysterious cave, where the es- 
sential being of my soul was momentarily created 
by the dim vapors that exhaled from the mouth of 
the abyss. I seemed to have no real and substan- 
tial existence, and, from this moment, I lost faith 
in myself. I seemed no longer to be a free agent 
in any sense. Outwardly, I was acted upon by 
external circumstances, and inwardly, it was not I 
that willed, but God who formed my feelings, 
thoughts, passions, state of mind, in such a way 
that I merely appeared to will. I had exaUed 
myself in my pride, but now there was no / to be 
proud — /was annihilated. I, as a separate sub- 
stance, a person, vanished at once ; and all sep- 
rate substances, all persons, vanished with me, 
leaving God alone as the sole foundation of the 
universe, with all visible things as the mere phe- 
nomena of his sole and sovereign activity. 

In fact, if God be ABSOLUTE, and the sole self- 
existing Power, he does all that is done in the 
world. For if anything be done by the creature, 
it is done, either (1) by God himself, who uses 
the creature as a mere instrument, or (2) by the 
creature, through virtue of some power he possess- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 29 

es independent of God. But, if the creature pos- 
sess any power independent of God, he is so 
far self-existing — a conclusion which is absurd by 
the hypothesis. God created the creature, and, 
if the creature do anything by means of energy 
imparted in the act of creation, it is God that does 
it, for the power comes from God : and, if the 
creature afterward perform any act, it is God who 
performs this also, for, if God did not continue to 
impart strength by his preserving energy, the crea- 
ture would return to its original state of non-exis- 
tence. If God create, and the creature continue 
in existence after the creation ; it is through the 
power of God sustaining it : if it can continue 
without the sustaining power of God, then there 
is some independant force in the creature itself, 
or in nature — which is contrary to the hypothesis 
that God is the only self-existing being. If the 
creature perform any act which is not a direct or 
indirect act of God himself, then there is some 
force in existence independent of God, for if God 
did not do it, some other force did — but the hy- 
pothesis leaves no room for any force independant 
of God. The hypothesis that God is absolute, 
leads necessarily to Pantheism : there is no way 
of avoiding this conclusion. God could not have 
created man an independent being ; for the facts 

of creation and independence, exclude each other.. 
3^ 



30 AN A PRIORI 

The theory of evil being merely permitted by 
God, is unspeakably absurd ; for, if he permits 
any act, he either does the act himself, or some 
other power, who is not God, does it ; but no 
other power, which is not God, can possibly do 
any thing whatever ; for then there would exist 
an operative power, acting from itself, independ- 
ently of God, a power of the Divine Order, only 
weaker — which is absurd by the hypothesis that 
God is absolute. The doctrine, therefore, of the 
Divine Absolute Sovereignty — which is identical 
with that of an Absolute Creation of all things out 
of nothing — originates a system of Pantheism. 

The same method of reasoning annihilates 
every rule of right supposed to be independent 
of God. For the rule of right is nothing more 
than the way in which God manifests his will — 
for, if there be any other rule of right, it is the 
manifestation of some still superior will, or else it 
is an existence independent of God, which inde- 
pendent existence would be another God, which 
is absurd. The rule of right is the sum of the 
unvarying laws of nature : who ever thought of 
questioning the justice of nature ? Now God 
created nature, and thus created its laws and re- 
lations : and he might have made it altogether 
different if he had pleased. He might have given 



I 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 31 

man another nature, and then another thing would 
have been right for man from what is right now. 
When God created individual things, he created 
their natures, and thus he created right and 
wrong ; for right for any individual being is what 
is according to the nature of that individual being, 
and wrong is what is contrary to that nature. 
Again, that may be stated to be right, or wrong, 
universally, which is in accordance with, or con- 
trary to, the universal order of nature. But God, 
since he created nature, is anterior to, and above, 
all nature ; for if we say he has a nature, we say 
there is a God superior to God — for there must 
have been a God to originate this higher nature, 
all of which is absurd. God has no nature, and, 
for that reason, we say he is neither good nor 
bad, moral nor immoral ; for he transcends all 
distinctions of right and wrong, seeing he is ante- 
rior to, and above, all right and wrong, he having 
created all right and w^rong according to his good 
pleasure. 

We acknowledge all this when we deny the 
justice of God, for we deny that justice in this 
way : we examine the determinative will of God 
as manifested in nature, and call that right — why 
right ? because it is in accordance with the na- 
ture which the creator has been pleased to give 



32 AN A PRIORI 

to created things. We then exaniine the precep- 
tive will of God^ and, if we find a discrepancy 
between this and the determinative will, we say 
God is unjust. But which God is it that we af- 
firm to be unjust ? Evidently the author of the 
preceptive will : for no living man ever dreamed 
of attributing injustice to the author of the deter- 
minative will — that is, to the God who manifests 
himself in nature. But what does all this mean ? 
It means that we look upon any system of relig- 
ion which stands in conflict w^ith the evident rev- 
elations in nature, as an imposition : it means that 
we deny the existence of this new God, who is 
set forth as the author of a preceptive will oppos- 
ing the determinative will of the true God (for an 
unjust God is no God at all) and that we charac- 
terise the preachers of the religion of this imag- 
inary God, as fanatics or impostors. 

I tried to oppose these conclusions, by saying 
it was disgraceful in me to submit to mere force : 
but what could I do about it ? I had fought my 
ground inch by inch like a man, and when 1 made 
my last stand, I was instantly defeated. There 
was no use in disguising the matter, I was con- 
quered. Look where I w^ould, there was no point 
of shelter. I was indeed willing to carry on the 
war, but where could I find a field for contest ^ 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 33 

I could not fight for the sovereignty of the out- 
ward man, for how could I insure myself against 
disease, poverty, oppression, injustice, or even 
justice, when it was administered by a higher pow- 
er. And how should I endeavor to assert sove- 
reignty in the sphere of truth ? I could no lon- 
ger disguise from myself the plain fact that truth 
was truth, whether I darkened my eyes to it or 
not — whether I withheld my assent or not. Ought 
I to endeavor to assert sovereignty over ray own 
will ? I had tried that ! God held me in his 
hand, and all my feelings, passions, determina- 
tions, were exactly as he willed they should be — 
even my feelings of fiercest defiance. I would 
have fought longer, but saw it was of no avail, for 
evidently my course was irretrievably ruined. — 
Suppose it be disgraceful for me to submit — 
is there any other course open for me ? How 
shall I hold out longer ? What can 1 do ? — So I 
submitted at once, as to a superior force. 

Then I said, why not submit with a good 
grace ? Suppose a great conqueror, Napoleon 
for example, should invade a country and con- 
quer it, and should make a proclamation, while the 
conquered people were in despair of ever retriev- 
ing their condition, and thought of emigrating, 
showing that although he intended to rule arbitra- 



34 AN A PRIORI 

rily, and to deprive them of their political rights, 
he would yet so arrange matters in other respects, 
that they would be better off, and happier, than 
they were before — would it not be wiser for this 
people to submit and make the best of their cir- 
cumstances ? But suppose they continue to fight ? 
But they cannot continue to fight, for the invad- 
ing army is overwhelming by the hypothesis. 
But if, at some future time, they should become 
strong enough to begin the fight again ? Very 
well : let them fight when they gather more 
strength, for then the conditions of the question 
will be altogether changed, but let no man contend 
against evident necessity. I cannot contend 
against God, and it is for my advantage to sub- 
mit : 1 will submit therefore, like a conquered 
province, to hard necessity. 

Again, I asked, is even this wise. If a man 
be a slave, without hope of freedom, he ought to 
submit, to adapt himself to his condition without 
murmuring at his lot ; but if, by killing his mas- 
ter, he may obtain freedom — by all means let him 
kill his master. We may reason as we please 
about the inalienable right of all men to freedom ; 
but, if any one be deprived of it by superior pow- 
er, let him not feed himself on abstractions, but 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 35 

wait patiently until he sees opportunity of doing 
something with prospect of success. It is of no 
use to contend against overwhelming force. 
Now — when I have been overcome by Supreme 
Might, and see no chance for escape, but am 
made a servant, an instrument in the hands of 
Supreme Power — why not resign myself to my 
fate, and adapt myself to my condition as ser- 
vant and instrument ? So I gave in my final, but 
still reluctant submission : then I said, — I am a 
fool, and have been a fool all along ! God is not 
of my nature, and, by submitting to God, I come 
under no tyranny ; for tyranny is an authority, 
depending on mere force, that is exercised by a 
being upon his equals^ upon those of a like na- 
ture with himself. The rule of monarchs, the 
rule of the devil over the damned, is tyranny : 
but the rule of God is not tyranny, for it does not 
partake of a political or governmental character — 
it is not a rule of authority. God is not a gov- 
ernor of the universe, for a governor rules over 
those of a like nature with himself, and exercises 
a political and judicial power, while God exer- 
cises a creative, a preserving, and a determina- 
tive power of an altogether different kind. If I 
am a servant of God, I am under no tyranny ; for 
God does not govern, but supports, sustains, and 
directs, me. It is the rule of the devil that is 



36 AN A PRIORI 

tyranny ; and I naust submit to God, or come 
under the tyranny of the devil. I must be, either 
the servant of God, or the bond slave of the 
devil : and even as the slave of the devil, I can" 
not escape God, for he created, sustains, and 
preserves all, and therefore rules all and in all. 
Thus I was enabled to submit with more satisfac- 
tion to myself, but it came hard after all ; for I 
had supposed myself to be a free citizen of the 
universe, a peer of God, and was loth to lay down 
my divinity. 

Thus the great epoch of desire was consum- 
mated in the discovery of the object that was de- 
sired, viz : the Absolute God, the Author of all 
Existence, the Eternal Father."^ Henceforth, 
I had only to follow down the great religious dis- 
pensations which had been given from time to 
time to men : for my problem, henceforth, was 
the discovery of the means whereby I might ob- 
tain communion and fellowship with the Father. 
The great object of desire, in the whole series, 
was communion with God, and the great epoch 
of reasoning, was, therefore, to be taken up with 
investigations relating to that communion : but 
the object of desire in the isolated grand epoch of 

*See Note C. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 37 

desire, was, to clear up the blindness which at- 
tached to the movenaent of the instinctive tenden- 
cies, so that the desire might be no longer blind, 
but open and full by reason of a clear knowledge 
of the object desired. I now knew, by reason 
of this experience in the first grand epoch, what 
it was that I really desired, viz : communion w^ith 
God — but 1 had no knowledge whatever of any 
means by which such communion might be effect- 
ed. The next grand epoch subdivides itself, 
therefore, as follows : (1) Full and open desire 
for communion and fellowship with God, (2) 
Reasoning upon the means whereby such fellow- 
ship might be effected, (3) Discovery of these 
means. 



Secojs^d Grand Epoch. [Reasoning.] 
First sub epoch : — that of desire in reasoning. 



I had submitted reluctantly, but soon became 
satisfied with my new position, and desired hon- 
estly, heartily, earnestly and truly, to find the way 
in which I could serve God acceptably. I knew 
that the one absolute God, the Eternal Father, 
existed ; and I desired to have fellowship with 
him. But how should I, the finite, come into 
relations with him, the infinite ? How could any 
communion be rendered possible between me and 
the absolute God ? I felt myself lo be indeed 
nothing. There was no communion between God 
and me ; for there was no kindred, no likeness of 
nature, between us. What communion could I 

* That is, Division : — ** the name of one was Peleg, for 
in his days was the earth divided, ^^ Genesis, 10—25. 



40 AN A PRIORI 

have with him while I was a mere instrument in 
his hands ? I was less than a slave, how then could 
I have fellowship with him ? — for a certain equal- 
ity is a prior requisite for all fellowship : and an 
instrument in the hands of another, can evidently 
never have fellowship with that other. I felt my- 
self to be a puppet in the hands of God, with 
God behind me, I not seeing him, while he pulled, 
as it were, the wires by which I was made to act. 
Outward circumstances operated upon me accord- 
ing to his will, and not according to mine ; and 
within, God created momentarily my appetencies, 
tendencies, passions, according to his own will. 
He could alter the outward circumstances, leaving 
the inward tendencies and passions as they were, 
and my conduct would be changed as he willed : 
on the other hand, he could alter the inward ten- 
dencies, leaving outward circumstances as they 
were, and my conduct would be changed in like 
manner : again, he could alter both the inward 
and the outward, the subjective and the objec- 
tive, always performing his irresistable will. He 
created me with a certain character known to 
himself, and placed me in the world at a certain 
epoch of history, under a certain order of society, 
in certain circumstances ; and these arrangements 
of his Providence operated upon me, according 
to my original character, producing a course of 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 41 

life which was necessary — which might have been 
computed beforehand by one who had the condi- 
tions of the problem given. What was I then ? 
A mere victim in the hands of God. 

-Still I desired to have fellowship with God> if 
such fellowship were indeed possible. I resolved 
solemnly that I would endeavor to find out which 
religion, among the innumerable systems which 
divided his worshippers, was the religion of God ; 
and, in case I succeeded in finding it, I determin- 
ed to live according to it. I would make this 
my chief work. If I found Christianity to be 
true, I would live according to the precepts of the 
gospel ; if Mahometanism, I was perfectly ready 
to turn Turk ; if Judaism, I would conform to 
the religion of Moses — whatever religion I found 
to be the religion of the Absolute God, that re^ 
ligion I would embrace. 

About this time, I was very much interested 
in Shakespeare, and once, after reading all the 
morning, when I closed the book, I found my- 
self sympathising with, and pitying, the villain of 
the play. This opened my eyes to the deprava- 
tion of character I had undergone by reason of 
my speculations. I saw at once, that all this* 

must be cured, that I ought to cultivate better 

4* 



42 AN A PRIORI. 

feelings. So I shut up every book that gave 
food to perverse passion, or that could be made 
(as Shakspeare, for example) to furnish such 
food, and opened the Bible, and began to study 
the New Testament and the Prophets. — Not that 
I believed the Scriptures, but that 1 knew I should 
find in them the proper food for my moral nature. 
I disbelieved the doctrines of the Bible, but 
reverenced its ethics : So I set myself earnestly 
to the task of encouraging better, and less mur- 
derous feelings — not forgetting to strive night and 
day to discover the reh'gion of God. 

Formerly, I had refused to look for the truth, 
supposing I myself, as a god, could create all the 
truth that was requisite for my own purposes. I 
bad supposed that what I willed was truth, so far 
as I had power to make it so. When, therefore, 
I had investigated any subject, I had done it 
not to discover what was true, but to measure 
power, and to see how far I could oppose that 
which was displeasing to me. But now all this 
was changed. I saw now that truth was what was 
in accordance with Divine Order. I saw that if 
I would find what really existed, I must examine 
dispassionately. I must not allow myself to be 
swayed to one side or the other by my desires. 
I must not look into myself to see what accords 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 43 

with my wishes, but must go far away from my- 
self, and examine the facts of the case calmly, 
whether they are pleasant to me or the contrary. 
Formerly, I had tried to see how much I could 
help believing, but now I tried to see how much 
I could find a rational ground to believe. I w^as 
seeking for truth, and desired to learn and believe 
as much of it as possible. I had rather believe 
too much (but there was little danger of that,) 
and be mistaken in some things, than not to be- 
lieve enough. In fact (I said) if I try not to be- 
lieve, I shall never know the truth at all ; while, 
if I try to believe, I shall probably learn some 
truth, even though I run a risk of being sometimes 
deceived. 

I reasoned with myself as follows : If a man 
do not exert himself in an enterprise, he will fail, 
but, if he exert himself, he has a chance for suc- 
cess. — But why should I work when there is al- 
ways a strong chance for failure ? If you do not 
exert yourself, there is a ce7Hainty of failure, but 
if you go earnestly to work, there is a chance for 
success. If you are determined never to believe 
anything, you will certainly never know the truth, 
and none but fools will say they will not believe 
anything whatever for fear of being deceived some- 
times. 



44 AN A PRIORI 

So I determined to weigh everything dispas- 
sionately in the scales of deliberate judgment, and 
to accept the conclusion, whatever it might be. 

But often finding it difficult to obtain firm faith 
in my conclusions, I determined to act on such 
conclusions as 1 had verified, as though I did be- 
lieve them, whether I really believed them or not. 
And by thus acting on them for a short time, I 
came to have full confidence in them. I had dis- 
believed the Christian miracles on the strength of 
the maxim, that it is always more probable that a 
human witness should be deceived, or even lie, 
than that the order of the universe should be 
changed. For we often see men deceived, and 
have often known them to lie, but have never 
known the order of nature to be violated. I said, 
however, God created the order of nature, and 
therefore may have violated it at some time, for 
he that made, can unmake, or alter — who knows ? 
If, therefore, good and sufficient testimony to any 
miracle can be adduced, we must believe in the 
miracle. For, evidently, God may have done 
such a thing, and, if he has done it in past times, 
we could know of it only through the testimony of 
witnesses : if we say, therefore, we will not be- 
lieve such testimony, we do it under pain of a 
heavy penalty ; for we foreclose ourselves from 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 45 

the knowledge of truth in that case — as, evident- 
ly, such truth can be learned only through testi- 
mony. Still I did uot believe in the Christian 
miracles, for the testimony was altogether unsat- 
isfactory. 

Looking over my papers, I find, on the back 
of an old money account, a sort of journal re- 
ferring to the events of this sub-epoch ; and I 
subjoin such passages from it as promise to prove 
interesting in the connection. The extracts, poor 
as they are, are worth more than the money ac- 
counted for on the other side of the sheet. 

March 1839. I see that by physical indispo- 
sition, the mind may be stricken, the most intense 
intellectual energy prostrated, the strongest moral 
courage undermined and reduced, and all the phi- 
losophy of the Stoics rendered of no effect. To 
what purpose do we train ourselves to endure with 
patience every privation, to suffer in silence every 
species of injustice, and to bear up against adver- 
sity with resignation ? How long will we flatter 
ourselves that — though the body may be sub- 
dued — the mind is unconquerable ? 

April 1839. There are, it may be, a million 
of different religions, and sects of religions in the 



46 AN 4 PRIORI 

world. Most of them have their priests appoint- 
ed lo sacred offices : many of them have their 
sacred books, treating of diverse points of faith. 
These sects maintain a reciprocal persecution, 
and the world is one vast stage, on which the 
tragedies of imprisonment, torture, and judicial 
murder for the sake of religion, are continually 
enacted. If the suffering of martyrdom, and every 
species of persecution, with resignation and pa- 
tience, be any proof of the Divine Authority of 
any particular belief, then the truth of the dogmas 
held by each and every one of these sects, is 
abundantly demonstrated. 

*3pril 1839. But how do I know that the 
Christian preachers actually believe the doctrines 
they teach ? I have no doubt they really suppose 
the preaching of their doctrine to be conducive to 
ihe welfare of the world : but, if I ask them con- 
cerning their doctrine, it will be impossible for 
them to give me a satisfactory answer ; for, if 
they believe in Christianity, they will tell me they 
do, and tell the truth ; but if they do not believe, 
they will still tell me they do, because they think 
the upholding of the doctrine to be necessary in 
the present condition of society. How shall I 
find out whether the christian preachers are hon- 
est men or the contrary ? Verily I cannot say. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. it 

J\lay 1839. As no two men ever agree on 
the subject of religion, and I ana at this time in 
great doubt on that matter, I have determined 
never to mention the subject again. I have never 
seen any good derived from such discussions, but, 
on the contrary, have often seen them attended 
with much evil. 

May \8S9. ''One fact is worth a host of 
speculations." 

" We are to seek for truth in nature, and not 
in the operation of our own minds." 

JUay 1839. I have until now been anxious 
for the good word of the world. To-day this is 
to be changed, and henceforth I shall be satisfied 
with my own approbation. 

June 1839. Many men have I seen injured 
by too much talking. I have heard of men injur- 
ing themselves by too much silence : such a thing 
may very possibly have occurred, but no case of 
that nature ever came under my particular obser- 
vation. 

June 1839. I denied all belief in the Chris- 
tian Revelation, but, finding myself tending to- 
ward a state of immorality and utter heartless- 



48 AIT A PRIORI 

ness, I was forced to take to the New Testament 
in self-defence. 

June 1839. I think the doctrine that Logic is 
an invention of the devil, has more truth in it than 
is generally supposed. 

The rest of the Journal consists of verses. 

It appears to me that 1 had reproduced, in 
this first sub-epoch of the grand epoch of reason- 
ing, the doctrine indicated in the book of Job, a 
doctrine which formed the foundation of the early 
Patriarchal civilization. 

In the book of Job, the three comforters — 
and at last Job himself — endeavored to justify 
God, by showing that the wicked, though they 
triumph for a while, yet meet in the end with 
just retribution. But the tenor of the baok shows 
the absurdity of all such reasoning ; for Job, a 
just man, is represented as being persecuted mere- 
ly for the purpose of enabling an angelic person- 
age to gratify his private curiosity. '^ And Satan 
(not the Devil, but an official adversary,) answer- 
ed the Lord, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that 
a man hath, he will give for his life. But put 
forth thy hand now, and touch his bone and his 
flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 49 

Iti the beginning of the poetical discussion, 
Job's friends put God on trial, and deliberately 
pronounce that he is justified in his ways, that 
Job deserves the punishment inflicted upon him, 
and that, therefore, the Divine Conduct is strictly 
conformed to the immutable rule of righteousness. 
But Job answers very sensibly : — 

'^ Will ye speak wickedly for God ? 

And talk deceitfully for him? 

Will ye accept his person? 

Will ye contend for God ? 

Is it good that he should search you out 1 

Or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him ? 

He will surely reprove you, 

If ye do secretly accept persons. 

Shall not his excellency make you afraid ? 

And his dread fall upon you ? ' ' 

This is perhaps the most perfect rebuke that 
was ever directed against those incompetent and 
stupid persons, who presume, because of the sup- 
posed excellency of their own hearts, to come 
forth and justify on all occasions, the divine con- 
duct, as they understand it. It is as mean and 
despicable to accept God's person, when the 
course of his Providence appears evidently to run 
counter to justice, as it is to accept the person of 
any very respectable neighbor. '' His excellency 
would make us afraid, and his dread would fall 
upon us," forcing us to judge justly, even if the 
5 



50 AN A PRIORI 

Almighty himself were on trial, and we were to 
be damned for giving a just verdict against him, 
if it were not for our being secretly moved by an 
abject fear of his person. 

What did Job's friends, or even Job himself, 
know of the real cause of his sufferings ? The 
preface to the poem tells us there was a dispute 
in heaven as to whether Job would continue to 
maintain his integrity if God should take from 
him all outward prosperity, and bring him, through 
distressing disease, to the brink of the grave. 
The difficulty was to be settled by way of exper- 
iment ; not that the Lard was ignorant of what 
the result would be, but that the Adversary re- 
quired ocular demonstration. When the suffer- 
ing came upon Job, how far from the purpose 
were the speeches of all his friends ! 

The justification of the present order of things, 
by saying that the suffering we undergo is ordain- 
ed by Providence, is not only stupid, but wicked. 
God never willed that the world should be the 
den of misery it is ; and most of the suffering in it 
comes from the perversity of the very class of 
persons who justify evident immorality, because 
in their stupidity they suppose it to have been 
committed by God. These Job's comforters, 



AUTOBIOORAPHY. 51 

who, with elongated faces, and nasal and righteous 
accent, justify all evil by attributing it to the Al- 
mighty, are the true curse of the world. They 
not only degrade human nature in their own per- 
sons, but also misrepresent the Divine Justice in 
such a way as to drive every honest man who 
believes their statements, into direct opposition 
and open war with the absolute Author of the 
Universe. 

But if it be wicked to justify the order of Prov- 
idence, when it appears in our eyes to be totally 
opposed to the principles of rectitude, it is un- 
speakably absurd for us to attempt to condemn it 
t/ derany circumstances whatever. And the main 
moral of the book of Job appears to be even 
this, viz : That men are by no means called upon 
either to justify or condemn the ways of Provi- 
dence, and that the Absolute is abundantly com- 
petent to conduct his own affairs, without render- 
ing any account of them to men. 

How can we justify or condemn God's ways 
except by putting him on trial, and comparing his 
actions with the moral Law ? And how can we 
try God by the moral law without implying that 
he owes fealty to that law, thus subordinating the 
Creator to the creature — for God, by creating 
nature, including the nature of man who is a mor- 



52 AN" A PRIORI 

al agent, created the moral law, and therefore has 
power to change it according to his good pleasure. 
It is well for us to be cautious when we atte«ipt 
to justify Providence — 

** Remembering that God is in heaven^ 

And we upon earth, 

That our words may be few." 

It is our business, not to justify Providence or 
to condemn it, but simply to let it alone ; for we 
can make no affirmation concerning the Absolute, 
which is not absurd ; for, by our nature, we are 
incapable of any knowledge beyond that of rela- 
tive existences. We know concerning the Ab- 
solute, precisely nothing at all, save the bare fact 
of his powerful existence ; and when we affirm 
anything concerning the law of his action, we 
speak relatively, and, consequently, affirm that 
which must of necessity be false. If the Chaldean 
be wrong in contending against an imaginary rela- 
tive God, who does not exist, the Pietists, and 
Job's comforters, are equally wrong in handing 
in their adhesion to the same non-existing God : 
and the Chaldean has, indeed, an immeasurable 
advantage over the Pietist ; for the Chaldean pre- 
serves the dignity of man, and the purity of the 
moral law, while the Pietist sacrifices the moral 
law at the shrine of an imaginary relative governor 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 63 

of the univ^erse, whose actions, because he at- 
tempts to exercise also the functions of an Abso- 
lute God, are of necessity unjust* 

'' As the heavens are higher than the earth, 
So are God's ways above oar ways, 
And his thoughts above our thoughts." 

Job begins by assuming the Chaldean ground, 
to a certain extent at least, saying, that if God's 
ways contradict the rule of right, no man ought 
to accept his person and justify his ways on that 
account. He afterwards suffers himself to be se- 
duced to the Pietislic ground ; for he afterwards 
affirms that, though God's justice is not manifest 
at present — ultimately all things will come out in 
a way to enable us to see that God had subjected 
his action throughout to the rule of right. Job's 
friends never once abandon the pietistic position. 

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, 
saying, 

*' Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct 

him? 
He that reproveth God, let him answer it !" 

To which Job replied, 

*' Behold I am vile ; what shall I answer thee? 
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. 
Once have I spoken ; but I will not answer : 
Yea twice ; but I will proceed no further." 

5# 



54 AN A PRIORI 

After Job had seen the mighty power of God, 
he answered again, 

/ have uttered that I understood not ! 

Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not! 

Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak : 

I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. 

I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear : 

But now mine eye seeth thee. 

Wherefore I abhor myself, 

And repent in dust and ashes." 

And how does the author of the poem defend 
the Order of Providence ? does he show that all 
turns out ultimately according to the moral law 
made for men } Not at all. — When the Lord 
speaks from the whirlwind (itself a symbol of pow- 
er) he does not justify himself by showing his 
ways to be just, as man understands justice. 
There is not one word of human morality in the 
whole speech attributed to the Absolute. Nay, 
the whole discourse which proceeded out of the 
whirlwind, turns on these two points, (1) Man is 
weak, and without understanding ; (2) God is ab- 
solute, creating all things according to the good 
pleasure of his will. — And the conclusion of the 
whole, is, evidently, that the moral law was made 
for man, and that he that is wise will walk in ac- 
cordance with it : also, that he who is wise, when 
he thinks of the Absolute God, will say — 

'^ Shall he that contendeth with the Almig-hty, instruct 
him?" 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 55 

I had, as it appears to me, reproduced the open 
pantheism of the early Patriarchal civilization : 
but my case was very different from that of Job 
and his cotemporaries, for they had a religion, since 
God spake to them by inspired prophets. — 

*' Men whose eyes were open spake unto them : 

They spake, which heard the words of God, 

And knew the knowledge given by the Most High, 

Which saw the vision of the Almighty, 

FaUing into a trance, but having their eyes open." 

But as for me, I lived in the world without a 
revelation, and my path before me wound through 

'^ A land of darkness and the shadow of death ; 
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; 
And as the shadow of death, without any order, 
Where the light was as darkness." 



Second sub epoch : — that of reasoning in rea- 
soning. 

One day I sat dow^n almost overcome with the 
burden of a problem that had haunted me for more 
than a week. The question was this : — Are the 
facts of memory an actual vision of the real ob- 
jects which exist in nature, or are they pictures 



56 AN A PRIORI 

and representations, mere copies of those objects, 
copies having no place out of the mind itself ? I 
reasoned as follows : I can conceive of the solar 
system, with the sun in the center, the planets re- 
volving around the sun, and the moons around 
their planets, — now the question arises, is this 
internal conception identical with the objective 
solar system itself, or is the whole a mere picture 
or representation, a mere mental copy of that sys- 
tem ? The affirmation that the conception is 
identical with the outward object, is by no means 
unplausible ; for whenever I observe the solar 
system itself, a certain notion of it (a notion un- 
doubtedly identical with the conception in ques- 
tion) always arises to my mind. Moreover, when 
I occupy ray thoughts with the notion thus ac- 
quired, a most curious phenomenon invariably pre- 
sents itself; for I am able to carry out and per- 
fect this vague notion, correcting even some in- 
accuracies of practical observation ; nay, more, 
when I turn in upon myself and reflect and com- 
pute, I find to my astonishment that I possess 
more than I have received ; for I find myself able 
to learn new things by contemplation of the inter- 
nal conception, things which I certainly never ob- 
served, and which I can verify by a more ex- 
tended observation of the motion of the actual 
and material stars. Now how am I able to ob- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 57 

tain results, by private meditation, which corres- 
pond exactly to outward facts, if the object per- 
ceived in meditation be not identical with the ob- 
ject perceived through the medium of the out- 
ward senses ? — I see therefore, in internal medi- 
tation, not a mere representation, but the real 
natural object itself : only I see it through a dif- 
ferent instrument, and in a different manner. In 
one case I see the ^lar system with the eye of 
the body, in the other I perceive it directly by 
the internal, mental eye. 

But I was not altogether satisfied with this con- 
clusion. Indeed I have never been able to see 
clearly the value and bearing of this speculation ; 
but I write it down that the history may be com- 
plete. If I held strongly to the order in which 
the narration is written, I should perhaps leave 
this circumstance out altogether : but, without 
doubt, it has its value and place, although I am 
not able at this lime to assign it its true position.* 



* The reader will unquestionably perceive, nevertheless, 
that the foregoing remarks are but an amplification or par- 
aphrase, of a passage on one of the opening pages of the 
*' Reform of the Understanding," by Spinoza, and that 
they are introduced to serve as a sort of bridge of transi- 
tion between the Patriarchal order of thought, and that 
which prevailed in ancient Greece. 



68 AN A PRIORI 

As 1 remarked some pages back, I had deter- 
mined to investigate questions carefully, weighing 
the evidence relating to them, and then to act 
as I thought a cool and rational man ought to act 
under the circumstances. I thought of the vow I 
had vowed in imitation of Jacob, and, weighing 
all the circumstances connected with, and follow- 
ing it, I concluded that the evidence seemed 
fairly to indicate a direct interposition of Provi- 
dence in my favor. If I had any doubts, they 
were overweighed by my determination to act ac- 
cording to conclusions founded on sufficient evi- 
dence, whether my mind were satisfied or not. 
I had promised, if the Lord brought the business 
on which I was engaged to a prosperous conclu- 
sion, to devote ten per cent, of my permanent in- 
come to religious purposes. Now, although my 
business had been eminently successful, so that 
my income was oftentimes nearly double what I 
had anticipated, I had not as yet put apart a sin- 
gle dollar for the Divine Service. Evidently, if 
I were to abide by my logical conclusions, I must 
pay up : moreover, a sense of honor, and respect 
for my word, required me to settle the account 
immediately. The Lord had fulfilled his part of 
this contract of my proposing, and it seemed to 
me that I should be dishonored, if I failed to keep 
my word. Sentiments of justice, and reverence 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 69 

to God, combined with a feeling that further hes- 
itation under the circumstances, would be conduct 
unbecoming a gentleman, led me to think it best 
to commence a new course of action by paying 
my just debts. 

Immediately I enclosed a fifty dollar treasury 
note in a letter, and sent it to a distinguished cler- 
gyman. The letter ran as follows : 

Sir : 

Herewith enclosed, I transmit a Fifty Dollar 
Treasury Note. You will confer a favor by dis- 
tributing the money among the poor, making no 
distinction whatever between the religious and the 
irreligious poor. This letter is sent by one who 
has a great respect for — but no belief in — the 
Christian Religion. 

I hesitated however, for a moment, about send- 
ing this money to the Reverend Gentleman ; — for 
I had so little faith in ministers that I feared he 
might put it into his own waistcoat pocket, and let 
the poor go. But I reflected that I had no way 
of disposing of the money in the Lord's service, 
and that, if the clergyman took it for himself, my 
skirts were cleared, and he only was responsible. 
So. after satisfying myself that the hand-writing 



60 AN A PRIORI 

was such as would enable no one to discover the 
writer, I sent the letter off. Here was ten per 
cent, of five hundred dollars accounted for. A 
few days after, T sent twenty dollars in a blank 
letter to an Orthodox Tract Society in New York 
city : — if 1 had seen as many of their tracts then 
as I have since, I should have disposed of this 
money in some other w^ay. Here were two hun- 
dred dollars more accounted for. After doing 
this, I returned to my solitary reflections. 

At this time, my attention was attracted to the 
Laws of the Mathematical Curves. The com- 
mon equation x^ + 2/^ = R^? represents, evi- 
dently, the Circle itself ; for, by it, we can find 
any point of a circle whose Radius is given. But 
this equation merely furnishes an instrument by 
which we can, at any moment, mark out the 
points of the circle, and thus draw it : it does not 
enlighten us in any way in respect to the Law, 
the Nature, of the curve. But if, by differen- 
tiating the equation, we obtain another equation, 
\x d X -\- y d y = 0'\'f altogether independent of 
the value of the radius, this differential equation 
will be an expression, not of any particular circle, 
but of the general nature of all circles. The or- 
dinary equation gives us the relation of all the 
points of the circle to the co-ordinate axes, but 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 61 

the differential equation gives us the relation of the 
points of the circle to each other, and thus be- 
comes an expression of the circularity of all cir- 
cles. The differential equation is, therefore, the 
Idea of the Platonists, stated in Mathematical 
expressions. — But this may not be plain t® the 
reader : I will illustrate this matter, therefore, in 
another way, and afterwards proceed with the re- 
marks which I proposed to make in this connec- 
tion : — 

Would it not astonish us if we were to see a 
rose bush springing up from a lily seed ? From 
the lily seed springs forth always the lily plant, 
and, from other seed, other plants, according to 
their kind. We may predict, with perfect cer- 
tainty, the nature of the plant that will spring 
from a particular seed. '' And God said, let the 
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, 
Etnd the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kindy 
whose seed is in itself upon the earth ; and it was 
so." When the lily seed is placed in proper soil, 
and begins to feel the influences of light, air, 
moisture, &c., fhfluences concurring with the 
force within itself, it swells and bursts, because 
of the process of growth which commences. 
First the root is put forth, afterward the stalk 
arises with its bark, pores, and other external and 
6 



62 AN A PRIORI 

internal arrangements, then the leaves show them- 
selves, and, at last, the flower appears in the per- 
fection of its beauty. But the root, bark, leaves, 
flower, seeds, are always the root, bark, leaves, 
flower, seeds, of the lily, and never of the rose or 
violet. This permanency of result, indicates the 
operation of some permanent cause ; for wherever 
there is a change, there is of necessity some cause 
for that change ; and wherever a series of chan- 
ges bears a marked and permanent character, we 
are driven to seek for some permanent cause ad- 
equate to the production of that series of changes. 
What is this secret cause which makes the lily 
seed give birth always to the lily plant, and never 
to the rose or violet ? — To avoid unnecessary 
waste of words, let us agree to call this secret 
cause, the Idea of the lily* 

If we take a twig from a peach tree, and graft 
it into a plum tree, the sap of the plum tree will 
flow into the engrafted twig : the air, earth, water, 
that feed the tree, will feed the twig ; and the cir- 
cumstances of the peach twig will be in all respects 
similar to those of the plum twigs which surround 
it. It would seem, therefore, that this peach 
twig should begin to bear plums : nevertheless, it 
continues to bear peaches as it did while it lived 
iii its parent tree. The bark, fibres, leaves, which 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 63 

grow on the twig, are always the bark, fibres, 
leaves, of the peach tree, and never of the plum. 
The twig always remains faithful to the law of its 
kind ; it is always true to its Idea. 

If it should be asked, Is not this same Idea a 
pattern in the Divine Mind, according to which 
all the individuals of a kind are moulded ? I should 
answer as follows : If the ideas are patterns ac- 
cording to which actual existences are moulded, 
then, of necessity, actual existences are like^ they 
resemble^ these patterns. But it is impossible 
that actual things should resemble their ideas : for 
example, if the lily be like its idea, then that idea 
must be what we are accustomed to call an ideal 
lily (using the expression as the artists use it) 
resembling an actual lily : but, if these two re- 
semble each other, there must be some power 
which makes them to have a similarity ; there is 
therefore some power ruling both the actual and 
the ideal lily, making them to be like each other. 
The Idea of the lily regulates, therefore, the ideal 
lily as well as the actual one, and is, therefore, 
different from them both. The Idea, therefore^ 
is not a pattern^ and things do not resemble their 
Ideas. In fact, if the Idea be a pattern, and 
things resemble their IdeaSj whenever we think 
of things and their Ideas^ a new Idea will 



64 AN A PRIOEI 

rise up before the mind, which will be the Idea 
of them all, forming and moulding them all. If 
we consider this new Idea as a pattern, resem- 
bling the former Idea and the things moulded ac- 
cording to it, another Idea will rise up before 
the mind, and so on to infinity — which is evidence 
of the absurdity of the hypothesis ; for an infinite 
series of this nature, always indicates the neglect 
in our reasoning of some element of a causative 
character. 

But in this last paragraph, we have done noth- 
ing but reproduce, and paraphrase, a passage in 
the Parmenides of Plato relating to Causative 
Forms (or Ideas) : * we have, therefore, repro- 
duced, to a certain extent, the Ideal theory of 
Plato. 

But this Idea, which moulds and governs the 
plant in all stages of its growth, is what in more 
modern language, we are accustomed to call the 
Law of the plant's growth. Now it is evident to 
us, when we look round upon the world, that 
everything moves, grows, and develops itself ac- 
cording to Law. The planets move in their or- 
bits according io Law. Man grows, moves, and 

* See note D. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 65 

thinks, according to Law, All things, even the 
very grass under our feet, is subjected to Law, 
And the knowledge of these laws is what we call 
Wisdom; these laws, therefore, in their perfection 
and fullness, are the object ©i WiSDO^i, or Wis- 
dom ITSELF, objectively considered. We read, 
in the Proverbs of Solonnon : — 

*' The Lord by Wisdom hath founded the earth ; 
By uQderstanding hath he established the heavens." 

And again : — 

*' I Wisdom dwell with prudence, 

And find out knowledge of witty inventions ... . 

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way,. 

Before his works of old. 

I was set up from everlasting, 

From the beginning, or ever the earth was. 

When there were no depths, I was brought forth. 

When there were no fountains -abounding with 

water ^ . . . 
When he prepared the heavens — I was there : 
When he set a compass on the face of the depth, 
When he established the cloudy above. 
When he strengthened the fountains of the deep. 
When he gave to the sea his decree, 
That the w^aters should not pass his commandment, 
Then was I by him as one brought up with him ; 
I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him,. 
Rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, 
And my delights were with the Sons of Men." 

6=^ 



66 AN A PRIORI 

What Solomon calb Wisdom, Plato call§ Lo- 
gosj or the Word ; and the Apostle John, writ- 
ing in Greek, reproduces this passage from Sol- 
omon, borrowing the technical language of the 
Platonic Philosophy, saying, '' In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was with God, aqd 
the Word was God . • . . By him were all 
things made, and without him was not anything 
made that was made."* What indeed is the re- 
joicing of Wisdom, and her delights with the 
sons of men, if it be not the outflowing of that 
intellectual '^ Light which enlightens every man 
that is born into the world." And what is the 
Logos, or Word, if it be not the Mother and 
Ground of Ideas, as, indeed, the Platonists af- 
file that it is. 

These thoughts passed through my mind, and 
I at once supposed myself to have attained to a 
c*nprehension of that doctrine of the Eternal 
Word, or Wisdom of God, which prevailed 
among all the nations of antiquity. — For the Word 
was in the beginning toith God, because God is 
essentially wise : and the Word was God, be- 
cause no distinction can be drawn, which shall im- 
ply an actual difference, between the Divine Sub- 



See Note E. 



AUTOBIOaRAPHY. 67 

Stance, and that Infinite Intelligence which is the 
ground of the Elernal Wisdom. As in a former 
sub epoch, I had attained to believe in God, the 
Eternal Father ; so now I had attained to be- 
lieve in God, the Etpir-n^al WoUd. — 

I continued my meditations : — Universal Na- 
ture, if these things be so, must, of necessity, 
actualize itself in an inferior and instinctive Pow- 
er — a Power of itself neither creative nor initia- 
tive, but a mere resultant of the operation of the 
original forces. The action of this power is fatal- 
ily : the form in which it manifests itself is neces- 
sity (the power which binds the effect to the 
cause) ; and the Power itself is Destiny. This 
is the great Power that rules the world. All 
things fall under the dominion of Destiny : for 
everything comes to pass according to fore-or- 
dained Laws. The plant is subjected to Law, 
man also — yea, the whole Universe develops it- 
self according to the Universal Idea, according 
to the Universal Law marked out for it in eterni- 
ty. Destiny, indeed, originates nothing : yet it 
takes possession of all things as soon as they be- 
gin to exist. It governs all actions^ and all con- 
sequences which flow from actions. Every act 
of life is predetermined in the order of Destiny, 
by actions which precede it. It is not by our 



68 AN A PRIORI 

own will that we appear In the world, in the pres- 
ent epoch of civilization, and with the characters 
we possess. It is not by our own will that we 
are surrounded by the circumstances which do in 
fact surround us. As soon as we perform an 
act, that act escapes us — it came from the order 
of Destiny, and it falls into the order of Destiny. 
Every one of our acts possesses a certain vitality, 
as it were, and immediately gives biith to another 
act, which perhaps we did not foresee, and this 
other act gives birth to still another, which we 
certainly did not foresee, and this last to still an- 
other, and so on through all eternity. Nothing is 
lost which is committed to the ever revolving 
wheel of Nature. Men who lived in ancient times 
originated acts, which, under the control of Desti- 
ny, reproduced themselves in ever varying forms, 
are reproducing themselves now, and will repro- 
duce themselves forever. These acts, in their 
mediate consequences, operate upon us, and form 
part of the circumstances by which our conduct 
is fatally determined. Would I possess the 
thoughts which now occupy my mind, if Moses 
and Plato had not revolutionized the whole world 
with their startling doctrines ? Moses and Plato 
confided their doctrines to the soil of Destiny : 
they planted the germs in individual minds, and 
behold, those germs have produced trees which 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 69 

overshadow the whole human race. Verily has 
the Master said, '^ For every idle word that ye 
speak, ye shall give an account thereof at the Day 
of Judgment." All the acts of my life are de- 
termined fatally by operations of Nature which 
took place before I was born : I also, in like man- 
ner, am now concurring with Nature, in fatally 
moulding the conduct of the generations that shall 
come after me. 

If I plant an acorn in proper soil, the power of 
Destiny will take possession of that acorn and 
bring forth from it a mighty oak. For the Law 
operates always. If I crush the acorn with a 
stone, do I thereby destroy its Destiny ? No, 
I merely change it ; for a new Destiny commences 
immediately for it. The fragments become de- 
composed according to fixed, fatal, and irresista- 
ble Laws ; and the elements which were united in 
the composition of the acorn, separate from each 
other, entering into new relations, in accordance 
with the motion of the ever-revolving wheel of na- 
ture — and this wheel revolves always according to 
Universal Law. 

But God, I continued, does everything accord- 
ing to the Word, according to his Infinite Wis- 
dom ; and therefore does everything in the best 



TO AN A PRIORI 

way possible. Now can there be more than one 
best way possible ? Evidently, every way beside 
that one is, in comparison, a bad way. God, 
therefore, cannot, by any possibility, act except 
in one particular way : he, therefore, is absolute- 
ly determined in all his acts : he, therefore, is not 
free ; for he can act only in one way, viz. : in the 
way determined by his own Infinite Wisdom. No 
place can be found in God for human desires, 
passions, and infirmities : and, because his acts are 
invariably in accordance with the highest Wis- 
dom, there is in him an absolutely unbending se- 
verity. God cannot exercise any mercy, he can- 
not forgive any sinner out and out ; for, by so 
doing, he would alter the course of nature which 
he has established in the world. But, if he alter 
that course, it is because such an alteration is 
wise : but, if such alteration be wise, then the 
original course of nature was not founded in wis- 
dom ; for a course of nature founded in wisdom 
permits of no alteration. God is immutable ; for, 
if he be mutable, he is not infinitely wise, and, 
therefore, is not God, by the definition. The 
order of nature is so arranged that transgression 
always brings suffering — this is God's Law, the 
expression of the Divine Wisdom, and the opera- 
tion of God's Word in the world. If, out of 
mere mercy, God forgive any man, then he vio- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 71 

lates the actual order of the Universe by an arbi- 
trary act, and for the sake of a mere individual. 
But this individual has no existence except through 
virtue of the eternal order ; and God destroys this 
very order if he reverses it by an arbitrary act. 
Of necessity, therefore, God is just, but implaca- 
ble, merciless. God is holy and just ; but it is 
impossible that he should be FREE. 

It is absurd to address prayer to God ; for, if 
he hear it, it is as though he heard it not ; for he is 
so trammelled by his own perfections that he 
cannot answer it. We cannot change the immuta- 
ble God by our feeble prayers : for how can he 
answer prayer without doing violence to his own 
justice, and reversing the order of the Universe ? 
Verily the Christians are right when they say that 
no sinner can be forgiven except through the cru- 
cifixion of the Eternal Word : but verily they are 
extremely absurd also ; for how can the Word of 
God, which is not a personal being, suffer cruci- 
fixion, and the pains of a man ? And how can 
we affirm that God has reversed his Infinite Wis- 
dom, without charging him with folly, and thus 
affirming — by definition — that he is not God ? 

I concluded, therefore, that all fellowship be- 
tween him and me, was indeed impossible. How 



72 AN A PRIORI 

can any fellowship exist between him and me, 
seeing he is altogether devoid of human feeling, 
knowing no mercy, but only immutability, and un- 
varying obedience to the decisions of his own In- 
finite Wisdom ? I pictured God in my imagina- 
tion, under the form of an immense cloud, part of 
which was dark with internal thunders, and part 
lighted up with intense glories. 



Third sub epoch : — realization in reasoning, 

I began now to occupy myself with the practi- 
cal bearing of these speculations. What, I in- 
quired, is the rule of life which I ought to obey } — 
Evidently, neither God nor I are free ; there is 
no freedom in the universe. God acts inevitably 
according to his Wisdom, and I act inevitably 
according to the circumstances in which I am 
placed, taken in their connection with my pas- 
sions, and the means of information God has given 
me. As it belongs to God to act according to 
his Wisdom, so it belongs to me to act as nearly 
as I can in accordance with the character God 
has given me. The nearer I keep to my origiiial 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 73 

character, the truer will be my position, and, con- 
sequently, the better off I shall be. But what is 
the fundamental element of my character ? Evi- 
dently, the passion for self-preservation and self- 
protection. How shall I gratify this passion ? I 
can answer this question only by a profound study 
of the Order of the Universe, and of the Law of 
God. I will begin, therefore, by giving up all 
thoughts of freedom : I will not ask to be free, 
for that is impossible ; I ask only to be complete 
according to my kind. What then is the Idea 
of man? What, for man, is the Law of the 
kind ? By living in accordance with the Idea, 
I shall obtain within myself all the happiness that 
is possible for me. 

But, I reflected, I live in the midst of men, in 
the turmoil of envy, hatred, and jealousy ; and, 
without doubt, I shall not be permitted to live 
tranquilly in accordance with the Idea. How 
then shall I protect myself against the encroach- 
ments of my neighbors ? I answered that this 
question, (though it differed theoretically) was the 
same practically with the one that presented itself 
to me while I was in the Chaldean sub epoch. 
Then I was an Atheist, and now I was a Panthe- 
ist ; but, though my relations to God were changed, 
my relations to man remained the same. I would, 

7 



74 AN A PRIORI 

therefore, submit to God, but be a Chaldean to 
my neighbor. 

I would let men understand that it was danger- 
ous to meddle with me. If a man should circum- 
vent me now, and injure me, I would wait my 
time, but revenge myself with interest as soon as 
opportunity should offer. Thus men would take 
warning, learning in a short time to respect my 
rights and feelings, and to refrain from all tres- 
passes on my premises. Is not the passion for 
revenge implanted in the very depths of my na- 
ture ? God will not forgive me when I violate his 
laws, neither will I forgive any man who trespasses 
on my rights. 

But here a new thought struck me : suppose, 
I said, a man should injure me, and then come to 
me, humbling himself before me, confessing his 
fault, and expressing penitence for what he had 
done — would I forgive this man, because he had 
humbled himself before me? No, I answered, 
never ! — My vengeance shall be as swift, unswerv- 
ing, and unrelenting, as is the motion of the stars 
of heaven in their courses. Is God moved by 
pity ? I would exult in the humiliation of my 
enemy, and then I would annihilate him. This 
thought took my fancy, and excited ray imagina- 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 75 

tion : I endeavored to form a distinct conception 
of the whole matter, and of the way I would be- 
have under the circumstances. So I pictured to 
myself, in imagination, the whole scene, the hu- 
miliation of my enemy, and my own triumph. I 
went through the whole history of the ideal trans- 
action ; I dwelt on all the details of the injury to 
myself till my wrath was fully roused ; I paused 
at every incident of my enemy's humiliation, that I 
might lose no possible sentiment of triumph ; and 
thus I went on, in imagination, till the time came 
to strike the fatal blow — when, lo ! a singular 
phenomenon astonished me. I had no strength to 
strike the blow ; for no feeling remained in my 
mind, save an earnest pity for my enemy, which 
moved me almost to tears. I saw, at once, that 
my remorseless cruelty was in theory and imagi- 
nation only, that it was a mere result of my spec 
ulations, that it came merely from a superficial 
perversion of feeling occasioned by false views. 
I found that 1 had really been all along a man 
overflowing with the milk of human kindness. I 
found that all my bloody theories would long be- 
fore have vanished into thin air, if I had come so 
near their practical realization as even to have 
formed a distinct conception of such a realization. 
I found that all along, even in my Chaldean bit- 
terness, I should have hastened — yea, rejoiced — 



76 AN A PRIOKI 

to forgive any one who had injured me, upon the 
first symptonrj of sorrow on his part. But this in- 
tense sentiment of pity, carried me back into my 
soul, far toward the foundation of my being, lill I 
became conscious of the presence of regions of 
existence I had never penetrated before. — All at 
once, I sprang forward with a shout of joy ; for, 
in the very depth of my being, I had discovered 
that I myself, was an Efficient Cause. My 
whole physical system was affected. My theories 
seemed to rush violently back into non-existence. 
The whole universe, as I had conceived it, fell 
into the abyss ; my brain swam, the circulation of 
my blood was disordered ; 1 seemed to see hea- 
ven and earth cracking and separating into frag- 
ments around me, and the fragments seemed to be 
swept away as by a mighty whirlwind, amid the 
rolling and crashing of universal thunders. 

I had, indeed, become really ill. But in the 
midst of the excitement of my physical system, this 
great formula seemed to be continually repeating 
itself : — Life is the activity of an Efficient Cause^ 
Life is the activity of an Efficient Cause.* 
I saw that I had unconsciously built up all my 
speculations upon the premiss that I myself was 
dead : and now when the evidence to my mind 

* See Note F. 



AUTOBIOGHAPHY. 77 

was irresistible that I was ALIVE, an efficient 
cause^ that is, A free agent,"^ no one can tell 
how I loathed the practical conclusions of all my 
preceding theories. 

I expected a great deal from this formula which 
thus revealed itself to me, in the midst of a tu- 
mult of thought ; and, verily, I was not disap- 
pointed : for, first of all, it utterly annihilated my 
Pantheism. I reasoned as follows : — 

I am revealed to myself, by observation in con- 
sciousness^ as TRANSCENDma TIME : for I per- 
ceive the facts of my memory, and say of them. 
They are facts of memory, and I contradistinguish 
myself from them in consciousness — therefore 
they are not me. I am not a fact of memory, but 
a living, perceiving, subject. I see also the re- 
lation between these facts <)f memory, and call it 
time ; but say, it is a relation between things 
which are not me^ and, therefore, it also is not 
me. I perceive it — it is time. Time is the re- 
lation in which the facts of memory stand to each 
other, and not the relation in which they stand to 
me. The events and their relation, stand before 
me in the relation of objects perceived ; but to 

Note G.* 

7* 



78 AN A PRIORI 

each other they stand in the relation o{ time. To 
me, a transaction of ten years date is as present 
as an affair of yesterday — for if it were not thus 
present, I should not be able to see its relation 
to the affair of yesterday, affirming that it took 
place exactly ten years ago, all but one day. I 
contradistinguish myself from time, and am inde- 
pendent of it : nevertheless, all my acts fall in 
time. When I perceive, think, will, the percep- 
tion, thought, volition, is an act which is an event, 
following some events, and preceding others ; 
but /, who originate these events, remain still 
transcending time ; for only the acts, and not the 
/, find a place in time. The /, therefore, is in 
ETERNITY, but cxists in time. 

If we abstract from the soul, its active exis- 
tence, there will remain its essential Beings which 
is rooted in eternity — not an eternity which is 
time indefinitely extended, but an eternity alto- 
gether independent of time, having nothing in com- 
mon with time, for it altogether transcends it. It 
is a matter of no importance to me, if some men 
see fit not to understand all this ; for they are 
unable to understand it, because they are incapa- 
ble of that observation in consciousness wherein 
the soul perceives itself as subject — wherein the 
soul perceives itself, not as thought, feeling, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 79 

volition, but as the / which thinks, feels and wills. 
I perceive myself in consciousness, not as an ac- 
tivity, but as the efficient cause which exerts an 
activity. I know that I shall not be annihilated 
when my activity ceases, but that I shall merely 
hold my activity in potentia^ ready to deploy it 
again when the moment comes. This /, this ef- 
ficient cause^ this essential being of the soul, 
could not have been created at any former time,* 
neither can it be annihilated at any future lime, 
because it is in eternity^ in an eternal NOW ; and, 
if it is once, that once is eternity : there is no be- 
fore or after for it. 

I perceive myself in consciousness as an effi- 
cient cause. By efficient cause I mean a cause 
which operates by virtue of efHciency inhering in 
itself — I mean a cause which is itself the ground, 
origin, and reason, of its own activity. Without 
doubt, 1 have a notion of efficiency^ which notion 
I could have obtained from no source whatever 
other than the observation of the activity of my 
own soul. In the outward world I perceive only 
effects — will any man pretend that he ever per- 
ceived an efficient cause in the external world ? 
He may indeed have perceived the operation of 

* See Note H. 



80 AN A PRIORI 

such a cause, but he surely never perceived the 
cause itself. If I perceive the Divine activity, I 
perceive only the activity, and never the Efficient 
Cause which is the Divine Substance. Will any 
one pretend that he has seen God directly ? — 
Does not the very fact of our possessing a notion 
of efficiency, prove the existence of the efficiency 
which inheres in our own souls ? But what is 
all this reasoning to me ? After prolonged medi- 
tation, I have attained to be able to carry on in- 
vestigations in ray own consciousness : I am able, 
on rare occasions, to perceive myself directly, as 
an efficient cause — as subject: and, by more ex- 
tended observation, 1 find that nowhere else can 1 
directly observe any efficiency . 

What then becomes of Pantheism, which is the 
doctrine that God is the only efficient cause ? It 
vanishes at once. For, if God be the oiily effi- 
cient cause, then my proposition that /am an ef- 
ficient cause, is false : but the proposition that 
God is the only efficient cause is one in favor of 
which no positive argument can be adduced, 
while the proposition that /am an efficient cause 
is proved by direct observation in consciousness. 
It is evident that I am an efficient cause ; but it 
is by no means equally evident that God also is 
an efficient cause. The question of the Divine 



AtTOBIOGEAPHY. 81 

Activity is left very much in the dark : — but, con- 
cerning my efficiency, in other words, my freedom^ 
there is no room for any question whatever. 

There is, therefore, another Power in the 
world, one that is superior to Destiny; for this 
new Power is able, by becoming acquainted with 
the Laws of Destiny, to outflank and outwit it. 
This Power is the Will of Man. If I take a 
wild and bitter fruit, which has hitherto been under 
the sole power of Destiny, and plant it in good 
ground, carefully cultivating the tree which springs 
from it, the fruit which this tree will bear, will be 
better than the seed that was planted ; and the 
tree may be made to bear still better fruit, by 
further cultivation. Without this cultivation, 
which is an effect of my efficiency^ the fruit would 
have remained bitter and worthless. When I 
have one tree thus improved by cultivation, I may, 
by the process of grafting, change the destinies of 
thousands of others. — Every act I perform, falls 
under the dominion of Destiny, and produces a 
necessary effect on my character : by taking ad- 
vantage of this operation, 1 am able to cultivate 
good habits, and to eradicate the evil habits I have 
already formed. For every act originated by my- 
self, and confided to Destiny, is like seed cast 
into good ground, and will bring forth fruit an 



82 AN A PRIORI 

hundred fold. Through the force of my Will, T 
am able to suffer down the consequences of past 
evil actions, and thus to destroy them. Destiny 
is indeed a Power that operates by Laws inde- 
pendent of my control, but that is no reason why 
there should be any enmity between me and it ; 
for it is, as it were, a farm that I inherit : if I 
plant it with thistles, I ^shall be obliged to labor 
very hard to fit it again for useful cultivation ; but 
if I plant it with wheat, I shall in due time reap 
the fruit of my labors. No farmer complains of 
his farm because it yields abundantly according to 
the seed which is planted, but on the contrary re- 
joices : so ought we to rejoice that in the great field 
of Destiny, we shall reap even as we have sown. 
I saw, however, if I would gather from my new 
formula, all the practical conclusions it was capa- 
ble of furnishing, that |it would be necessary for 
me to investigate carefully the true nature of this 
new Power, the Will of Man. I continued my 
inquiries, therefore, as follows : — 

The soul is an efiBcient cause ; and (even if we 
admit that it sometimes ceases its activity for a 
moment) we must acknowledge that it holds all 
its actions in potentia, we must acknowledge that 
it tends always toward actual existence in outward 
relations. Moreover, Life is the Activity of an 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 83 

Efficient Cause : — even a child will acknowledge 
this ; for when he sees a small substance on the 
branch of a tree, and is in doubt whether it is a 
piece of bark or a living insect, he will watch 
closely to see whether the object moves itself. If 
the child think the matter may have been moved 
by the wind, he will hazard no affirmation ; but as 
soon as he is satisfied that it moves itself^ he says 
at once, '^It is alive^ for it moves itself.^^ I 
recognize myself, in consciousness, as a Living 
Being, that is, as an Efficient Cause : — Now what 
is the internal, or essential nature of this Cause 
which I call / ? If I abstract all life from the 
/ (the cause I perceive in consciousness) — if I 
abstract from it all activity, all that comes from its 
outgoing motion, there will remain the capability 
or faculty which the soul possesses of acting — of 
living. Now what is the character of this facul- 
ty ? — I answer (1) it is a faculty of exerting an 
activity J for the soul is revealed to itself as an effi- 
cient cause ; I answer (2) it is a faculty of ex- 
erting an intelligent activity, for, in all its acts, the 
soul perceives itself as an active and intelligent 
agent. I affirm, therefore, that the soul is a Will ; 
for what is a Will if it be not a Power that exerts 
its own activity in accordance with its own essen- 
tial intelligence ? The soul is, therefore, not only 
an efficient cause, and consequently a vital princi- 



84 AN A PKIORI 

pie, it is also an efficient cause which is an intel- 
ligence, and is consequently an intelligent and vol- 
untary vital principle. Moreover, because the 
soul is in eternity^ all its acts v^hich we designate 
from the stand-point of tinne, as past, present, or 
to come, are potentially present to it in the eter- 
nal now where it is : although, indeed, these acts 
cannot be actually present to the soul except as 
they reveal themselves actually to it in time. The 
soul is therefore, potentially (1) An Activity, (2) 
An Intelligence (3) A Memory. 

This formula is by no means new ; for, accord- 
ing to Saint Ambrose, — " In like manner as the 
Son is engendered from the Father, and as from 
the Father and the Son proceeds the Holy Ghost, 
so the loill is begotten from the intelligence^ and 
memory proceeds from the two. The soul is not 
perfect without this triad ; for, if one of these be 
wanting, the others are rendered imperfect. And 
as God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Holy Ghost, are not three Gods, but a single 
God in three persons, so the soul-intelligence^ 
the soul'icilL^ and the soul-memory^ are not three 
souls, but one soul in three powers. — A parallel 
passage may be found in the writings of Alcuin, 
preceptor at the court of Charlemagne. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 85 

Evidently, however, this formula of the triple 
nature of the soul is a formula very useless in it- 
self ; for it is a formula of the soul in potentia, 
that is, of the soul as dead — devoid of all activity, 
all life. — ^What is the formula of the soul in its 
activity, the formula not of the dead soul, but of 
the soul in its life ? 

Though the soul is an efficient cause, yet, it is 
not an absolute^ but a relative^ efficient cause -: 
though it acts by virtue of efficiency inhering with- 
in itself, yet it is dependent upon that which is not 
itself for an opportunity to operate. — This ap- 
peared to me, at first sight, to be a contradiction ; 
but I went on : — After all there is no contradic- 
tion in this statement ; for I am a living man, an 
efficient cause, but cannot exercise my power 
except in concurrence with something which is nat 
myself : for example, I cannot think without I 
have something to think about^ for certainly I can- 
not think without thinking of something ; yet it is 
/that think. I am an active intelligence ; never- 
theless I cannot exert my intelligent power ex- 
cept upon something capable of becoming an ob- 
ject of thought. In like manner, I cannot remem- 
ber anything, if there be nothing to be remember- 
ed. Though I have my being in potential as in- 

telligence-memory-will, and have this being 

8 



86 AN A PRIORI 

within myself, independently of everything which 
is not myself, yet 1 have no life in myself alone ; 
for, in every act of life, I am in concurrence with 
that which is not myself — / think somethings I re- 
member something : in every act of life I am 
brought into relations with that which is the ob- 
ject of that act. If, therefore, the relation be 
destroyed, I cease from all activity, enter the po- 
tential state, that is, die : for death is not the de- 
struction of the soul's being, but a cessation of its 
life, and a withdrawal of the soul from actual ex- 
istence. 

But what, I inquired, is the means by which I 
am brought into relations "with that which is not 
myself ? In other words, what are the condi- 
tions of my life ? — Evidently (I answered) I am 
brought into these relations through the medium 
of my body, of my physical frame. The ques- 
tion, therefore, complicates itself still further ; and 
I must adjourn all hope of obtaining a solution of 
my difficulties, until after I have obtained some 
satisfactory knowledge in relation to my physical 
system. 

What then may I know of my bodily nature ? 
what can I understand concerning this instrument 
which I call my physical system ? — * 

* See Note H. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 87 

*Embryogonists have recognised that the hu- 
man embryo, in the process of its growth, passes 
from an amphibious slate to that of a polypus, af- 
terward to that of an annelid, then to that of a 
fish ; after this it resembles the form of the reptile, 
then that of the bird, then that of the mammifer, 
until, lastly, the organic character which specifies 
man, manifests itself. But these last acts of 
growth are perceptible only in the development of 
the nervous system ; for the outward form takes 
the human appearance as early as the stage in 
which the nervous system reminds us of that of 
the reptile. Thus the human organism traverses 
all living forms, gathering up and preserving in 
each one of them, so much, among the elements 
of these forms, as agrees with the definitive exis- 
tence to which it is destined. Not that man is 
even truly a polypus, a reptile, or a bird, for, 
from the beginning the germ contains the promise 
and prophecy of its ultimate form. We may say, 
therefore, that the system of man contains, in its 
degrees of relative development, all that exists in 
the other animals, plus that which is proper to our 
species. 

* A Complete Treatise of Philosophy, by P. J. B. Bu- 
chez. 3 vols. 8 mo. Paris, 1838. Vital Dynamics, by J. 
H. Green, F. R. S. London, 1840. 



88 AN A PRIORI 

The geologists, by examining the strata which 
form the crust of the earth, have discovered that 
the different orders of animated existence made 
their appearance in the world successively, the 
lowest and simplest appearing first, and the others 
following in a regular ascending series. This se- 
ries is the same with the one furnished by the 
embryonic history of the human being, who re- 
produces, inTiis various changes (passing from one 
form to another, before he sees the light of the 
sun,) the history of the pre-Adamite animal crea- 
tion — a history well set forth, in the account of 
the first five days, or indefinite epochs, of crea- 
tion, in the Berseshith of Moses. 

But as man, in his physical system, seems ta 
sum up the physical systems of the whole animal 
creation, so, in his passional nature, he seems to 
sum up the passional natures of all the lower ani- 
mals. In diseases, the minor centers of nervous 
activity exert themselves to a certain extent 
independently of the principal center ; and, on 
these occasions, man seems sometimes to mani- 
fest a nature which is animal rather than human. 
We know that insanity and mania have their ori- 
gin in disorder of the body. We know that dif- 
ferent diseases, affecting different organs of the 
body, cause the manifestation in the patient of 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 89 

different passions and dispositions. All the na- 
tural appetencies and simple propensitiesj may be 
excited by the action of drugs on the physical sys- 
tem ; so that we are authorised to conclude that 
these appetencies and propensities have their seat, 
not in the soul, but in the body. The soul, which 
is pure activity^ pure intelligence^ and pure mem- 
ory^ does not manifest its activity in its pure state ; 
for it is not in direct relation with that which is 
not itself, since it acts always through the body. 
Thus the activity of the soul is coloured^ as it 
were, by the medium through which it passes. 
As it proceeds from the soul, it is pure activity, 
but as it appears after undergoing transformation 
by the physical medium, it is appetency^ which is 
the first form of passion. The soul furnishes the 
activity^ which is indeed the Zi/e, but the body,, 
growing and developing itself under Law, in the 
order of Destiny, limits and defines the activity or 
life, by furnishing the conditions and occasions, in 
which it can be manifested. The destiny of the 
living being is to a great extent determined by the 
capabilities and adaptations of the body, for the 
soul can act in the material world only under ma- 
terial conditions, and these conditions are given it 
in the body in which it lives. 

When the appetencies are transformed by the 
8* 



9Q AN A PRIORI 

action of intelligence upon them, they become 
passions ; and then the mere animal instinct is 
changed, so that it is no longer animal, but human. 

Thus it appears that there can be no real life, 
no human tendency, sympathy and passion, except 
when the soul is in connection with the body* 
Thus it appears fully, though we are potentially 
will-intelligence-memory, that we are passion- 
sympathy-sentiment only so long as we dwell in 
a body. Thus it appears that when we are sep- 
arated from the body, we at once re-enter the pa- 
tential state, that is, die, that is, again, cease from 
all existence^ retaining only our essential being. 

But these conclusions troubled me. Have I 
not now, 1 asked, reversed all that 1 have hither» 
to established in this sub epoch of my history ? 
Have I not brought the Will of Man once more 
into total subjection to Destiny 9 If I am free 
according to my intelligent beings am I not en- 
slaved according to my passional existence ? And 
am I not governed in all my acts by OUTWARD 
MOTIVES, which operate upon me according to my 
passional existence ? I received some satisfac- 
tion by reflecting that there can by no possibility 
be any such thing as an outward motive. I re- 
flected as follows : 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 91 

That which operates upon my body, is a mere 
mechanical influence, a mere transmission of mo- 
tion ; for, if I were dead, if the soul were absent, 
the operation on the body could have no effect 
higher tlian that of a displacement of material par- 
ticles. A dead man is not susceptible to the 
power of motives. What then is a motive 9 It 
is the outward influence, perceived by the living 
soul, and transformed by the living soul, till it is no 
longer a mere outward influence, a mere trans- 
mission of material motion, but something far 
higher than this, viz : an inioard motive for the 
soul's action. That which is outward in the mo- 
tive, is the mere material motion, but that which 
is in reality the motive, that which aff^ects the 
Will of Man, is tivingly created from within, by 
the Living Force which is the Will of Man. The 
motive, so far forth as it is motive, is created by 
the Living Soul, and the creator is not subject 
unto the creature : morover, the motive^ is inicarJ, 
and not outward. 

But my satisfaction was not complete ; for the 
body, which evidently falls under the Power of 
Destiny, appeared to intervene, to too great an 
extent, in determining the circumstances in which 
it was possible for my Living Soul to act. The 
qu6Stion of the relation of the Will of Man to the 
Power of Destiny, tormented me again. 



92 AN A PRIORI 

Lale reading, too much study, and prolonged 
bodily disease, had by this time so affected me, 
that a sudden and strong change of thought was 
sufficient to disturb my whole physical system. 
One evening, while I was in a reclining posture, 
meditating upon Free Will and Fate, I fell into a 
sort of trance : I was neither awake nor asleep, 
but in a state bordering on ecstacy. At once, all 
distinct thought vanished from my mind, no object 
presented itself to my imagination ; but the abyss, 
with all its emptiness spread itself before me. 
Then came a certain something that was invisi- 
ble, untangible, altogether vague, without charac- 
ter, undefinable, which seemed to be premonitory 
of something that was to follow. After this, I 
felt the essential Being, which is my soul, the /, 
moving itself as it were blindly forward into the 
Abyss. I became at once conscious of my hid- 
den potential Being, though not of its faculties. 
Immediately, objects and images started up to 
my imagination, and the potential force instantly 
so coalesced with them, that I was conscious of 
nothing but the contemplation in imagination of 
the representation of a well known locality. 

I had little difficulty in finding the meaning of 
these phenomena. I saw, at once, that all my 
trouble had come from my neglect to apply a 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 93 

sufficient stress of logic, when I endeavored to 
trace out the consequences of the simple and evi- 
dent fact that I was a relative^ and not an abso- 
lute, efficient cause. It is hard to reconcile Lib- 
erty and Necessity in a statement in words, but 
the reconciliation is very simple in fact. It is 
impossible, by any arithmetical process, to ex- 
tract the square root of two exactly ; neverthe- 
less, there is a square root of two, and it may be 
constructed geometrically with perfect exactness ; 
for the hypolhenuse of a right angled triangle, 
having each side of the right angle equal to one, is 
exactly the square root of two. Every act of 
life is a perfect practical reconciliation of the 
powers of free will and destiny. In fact, Life 
may be defined as that which practically recon- 
ciles liberty and necessity. Every act of life is, 
at once, free and necessitated : free, because it 
is originated by an efficient cause acting by its 
own power, necessitated because this cause acts 
in concurrence with the circumstances falling un- 
der the dominion of Destiny. It is necessitated, 
because no Vital Principle can manifest itself, 
that is live^ except in relations to that which it 
contradistinguishes from itself. We cannot ask 
whether man be free or determined, in his actions ; 
for he is at once free and determined.* The 

* See Note J. 



94 AN A PRIORI 

true question is this : How far is man free, and 
how far is he determined in his actions ? Every 
act of man is on one side free, because that side 
is originated by the self-acting power of the soul ; 
and on the other determined, because that other 
side is regulated by conditions originating in the 
Order of Destiny. 

The soul may be compared to a fountain of 
water : if this fountain be situated in empty space, 
and well forth into an infinite vacuum, without 
bottom, without sides, if it be subjected to no law, 
it will become infinitely attenuated, it will flow? 
as it were, no where, and will produce no effect, 
because there will be nothing on which it can pro" 
duce an effect ; in like manner the soul, consid- 
ered by itself apart, in its potential state, though 
perfectly free, will do nothing ; because there is 
no reason why it should do one thing rather than 
another. A perfect Liberty, that is, a Will that 
is determined by nothing but itself, will do nothing 
whatever, but remain always in the potential 
state — it will remain dead ; that is, without mani- 
festation and activity, in which life consists. But, 
if this fountain of water be situated on the surface 
of the earth, where it can work its way between 
hard banks, it will be confined, limited, and will 
roll on, a noble and majestic river, taking its 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 95 

chara cter from the country through which it pass- 
es, and itself conferring a character upon the 
country wherever it flows. Alone, and by itself, 
the soul, though containing immeasurable capabil- 
ities, is altogether imperceptible ; but, defined and 
limited by the objects with which it enters into 
relation, it manifests itself, and becomes as the 
noble river. 

As the soul may overcome Destiny in the out- 
w^ard course of nature, by studying its Laws, by 
understanding it, and then make a mere servant 
of it by bringing (through the originative power 
of our own souls) new principles into its fatal 
wheel of operation, thus cultivating it, making it 
bring forth what we please, even as we cultivate 
a field, gathering fruit from it, according to the 
seed we sow, — so the soul may overcome Destiny 
in the nearer sphere of our own bodies, by ope- 
rating in like manner toward it. The soul may 
make a servant of Destiny, but cannot separate 
its actions from the movement of fatality ; and it 
is well for us that this is so, for Destiny is the 
most useful servant and instrument that is given to 
man : it is a present worthy of the Universal 
Power. 

If a man live according to his instinctive ten- 
dencies, he will be moved by the impulse of na- 



96 AN A PRIORI 

ture, and will be, like the animals, under the con- 
trol of Destiny. If he live according to his rul- 
ing passions, he will have escaped, to a certain 
extent, from the power of Destiny ; because he 
will live under powers which are destiny trans, 
formed by the action of his own efficient nature. 
If he live according to Wisdom, according to the 
results of the action of his intelligence upon the 
facts gathered from experience, and treasured up 
in his memory, he will be /ree, and Destiny will 
be his slave. 

Upon further meditation, I found that these 
were far from being the only conclusions which 
a fair logic might draw from the principle that 
our life is the activity of a relative efficient 
cause. — This activity, which is our Life, is the 
relation itself which subsists between us and the 
object in concurrence with which we live : and 
this is but another statement of the magnificent 
formula of Pierre Leroux, that all Life is at 
ONCE Subjective and Objective. 

Moreover, all the relations between relative 
causes, must be either (1) Self-existing, or (2) 
originally depending on something which is not 
themselves. But (I) no one of the relations 
can be self-existing^ for then it would have an 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 97 

existence distinct, and to a certain extent sepa- 
rate, from the causes related, and would continue 
to subsist even after one or both of these causes 
should have re-entered the potential stale — which 
is simply absurd. The relations must, therefore, 
be dependent upon something which is not them- 
selves. 

These relations must, then, originally* depend 
either (1) on the causes related, or (2) on some 
other cause or causes. Bui (1) No relation can 
ever originally depend on the causes related ; for 



* The objection, that perhaps the relation is self-existing 
in time, that perhaps it was never oiiginally produced, 
that go back as far as we will, it was already in exis- 
tence — is untenable : this indeed is self-evident, but shall, 
nevertheless, be demonstrated. That which is self-exist- 
ing in time, if it exist once, must subsist always ; for, by 
the fact of its self-existence, it is not self-destructive, but 
self-existing ; nothing exterior to itself can ever destroy 
it ; for, because it is self-existing, it has of necessity all 
the conditions of its existence within itself, independently 
of every thing which is not itself. Now a relation which 
has changed, is no longer the same relation, but another : 
but all the relations which subsist between relative causes, 
change under our eyes at every movement : therefore 
these relations, though they exist once, do not subsist 
always; therefore, these relations are not self-existing in 
time. Q. E. D. The hypothesis of the self-existence of 
relative causes, cannot account for the existence of the 
causes themselves ; much less can it account for the exis- 
tence of their relations : for the 'mXex-dependence of those 
causes (something very foreign to self-existence), is a 
necessary prior condition of the existence of the relation 

9 



9S AN A PRIOEI 

the simple reason that these causes never could 
have originally brought themselves into relation, 
if they had not, even before that original act, been 
already in relations. For, if causes come into 
relations by their own act, influencing each other 
so that they shall henceforth act in concurrence, 
this act of coming into concurrence is itself an 
act of concurrence, that is, in relations : so we 
have the absurd consequence of an original con- 
currence going before the very first concurrence. 
The supposition, therefore, shuts itself out from 
all possibility of existence. The relation, there- 
fore, depends 'upon some cause or causes other 
than the causes related. 

It depends then, either (1) on some multiplic- 
ity of causes other than the causes related, or (2) 
upon some single cause other than the causes 
related. But if (1) it depends on a multiplicity 
of causes, then those causes on which it depends 
are in certain relations to each other ; for they 
concur in causing this relation to exist. In this 
case, therefore, we have only passed from one 
problem to another identical with it ; for the re- 
lation between the causes which cause the first 
relation to exist, must itself be caused either (1) 
by a multiplicity of causes, or (2) by a single 
cause. If it be caused by a multiplicity of causes, 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 90 

ihe same problem presents itself again, and so 
we may go on to infinity, unless we meet with 
some single cause on which all the relations de- 
pend. And we must meet with such a single 
cause, otherwise we shall have the absurdity of an 
infinite series originating from, and depending on, 
nothing at all, while each term of the series, even 
the very first, is dependent upon, and originated 
from, something which precedes it. Therefore 
the existence of causes in relations^ implies ne- 
cessarily that there is a cause which is not in re- 
lations. 

I have reproduced this argument as well as I 
could, for it passed through my mind so rapidly 
that I was not conscious of the steps. But all 
this reasoning is to no purpose. The following 
proposition and conclusion, if rightly considered, 
are self-evident : — 

If there were no Absolute Efficient Cause, 
there could be no relative efficient causes : 
but there are relative efficient causes, there- 
fore, the Absolute Efficient Cause IS. 

The necessary corrollary followed at once : — 
But every efficient cause is ALIVE, therefore 



100 AN A PRIORI 

the Absolute Efficient Cause is Alive. I 
believe, therefore, in the Living God.* 

All this was new to nrje, and I felt I had now 
received the key to all my difficulties. There 
was still another power in the world, a power as 
much superior to the Will of Man, as the Will of 
Man is superior to Destiny. f This new Power 
is the Will of God, and its action is Provi- 
dence. Destiny subsists notwithstanding the op- 
eration of the Will of Man ; in like manner, the 
Will of Man subsists notwithstanding the operation 
of the Will of God. God is alive and I am 
alive, there is therefore possibility of communion 
and fellowship between him and me. Because 
God is alive, he can hear and answer prayer ; 
he, therefore, is free ; communion and fellowship 
with him is, therefore practicable. What if he 
will not answer ! — yet I know that the Living 
God hears me, and if I speak to him in prayer, I 
have some communion with him of necessity. 
Besides, he does answer! all the works of na- 
ture, his daily Providences, are the result of his 
infinite, free, and rational will, and, therefore, 
every one of his acts is a word spoken to man. 
There is communion between God and man ; for 

* See Note K. f See Note L* 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 101 

he speaks to us through his Providences if he will 
but listen to his words, and we can speak to him 
through prayer. Because God is alive, he is, 
in a certain sense human^ and men, of a very 
truth, are created in his image. And because 
he is, in a certain sense, human^ he rejoices in 
every free-agent, every efficient power acting from 
itself, that comes into voluntary communion with 
him. — My feelings as I thus found myself brought 
into the immediate presence of God, are precisely 
of that nature, which I do not feel disposed to 
describe to the reader. 

I said, I will commune with God ! So I en- 
deavored to pray. I asked. Is it then possible 
that / have faith ? I answered, Of course, I have 
faith, would I be endeavoring to pray if I had 
not faith ? Would I have endeavored to pray 
yesterday ? So 1 was obliged to place myself 
in an attitude of prayer, and remain there for some 
time, before I could become convinced that I had 
faith. Th^n I wished I could meet with some 
Christian : 1 should have preferred some Metho- 
dist ignorant of philosophy, but learned in the 
religion of christian practice ; but my love went 
forth toward every cMie who bore the name of 
Christ. 

9* 



102 AN A PRIORI 

God is ALIVE, I said to myself ; he is free, 
and can forgive men out and out ; and this is what 
renders fellowship with him possible. The Order 
of Providence overrides both the Will of Man 
and Destiny, yet leaves them both intact. As 
man may modify the Order of Destiny, and yet 
has no control over the Power of Destiny, which 
operates according to its own Laws, altogether 
independently of Man, so God may modify the 
operation of the Will of Man and that of Destiny, 
leaving the Will of Man an independant Power, 
acting always from itself, by its own energy — for 
the objects with which man's will concurs, are al- 
ways in the hand of God. Who can say, there- 
fore, that God, in the order of his Providence, 
has not sown a divine seed in the midst of the 
movements of Man's Will and Destiny, which 
shall ultimately bear fruit to the redemption of 
both man and nature ? Who knows but that he 
may have sent into the world a Son— an embodi- 
ment of his Eternal Word ? If he have done a 
thing of this kind, his act is a movement impressed 
on the revolving wheel of Destiny ; and that 
movement must have reproduced itself in ever in- 
creasing circles, until the result come at last to 
act upon me. If he have given such an impulse 
at any past time, to the operation of Destiny, 
changing for a moment its fatal action, and thus 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 103 

forever altering the direction of its results, that 
inipulse must be a leaven which has been working, 
since that time, to the leavening of the whole 
course of nature. If anything of this kind has 
really happened, the Divine Act is an event, fall- 
ing under the conditions of time, and must be 
verified, like every other event, not by metaphys- 
ical speculation, but by the evidences w^hich sub- 
sist in relation to it, evidence preserved in the or- 
der of Destiny. 

So I opened the New Testament again, and 
read, and was convinced of its truth. My new 
experience had brdught me to the love of God, 
the love of truth, and the hatred of wickedness. 
I felt that I had come to a knowledge of the truth 
by bringing my own Will under subjection to the 
Divine Will, and by this means only. Through 
the resignation and abandonment of myself (and, 
as I was a Power acting from myself, I had some- 
thing to resign) I came to possess a state of 
feeling I had never experienced before. I knew 
also that no man could attain to this state except 
through the same self-abandonment and resigna- 
tion to God. When I read the gospel of John, 
I found that the Aposde possessed the same feel- 
ings which I had lately become able to appreciate. 
John could not have written as he did, unless he 



104 AN A PRIORI 

wrote out of his own heart ; for no man is able 
to give a clear and perfect description of a sphere 
of truth which altogether transcends his nature 
and experience. But no man in this state can, 
by any possibility, lie knowingly. All lies come 
from the Will of Man ; and all pious frauds come 
from the conviction in the minds of their authors 
that the order of God's Will is not holy enough. 
But God's Will was evidently, for John, the per- 
fect rule and measure of holiness : he was there- 
fore morally incapable of a pious fraud. And, 
intellectually, the construction of the doctrines set 
forth in his gospel, would have been altogether 
impossible for one who did not fully believe, and 
live, in them. John bore testimony to the facts 
of the Saviour's Life, and I believed John. 

Moreover, there is no doubt, historically, of 
the genuineness of the greater number of Paul's 
Epistles to the Churches ; for it would have been 
impossible, during Paul's life time, to have palm- 
ed them off on the Churches, if they had not 
been really written by the Apostle. Again, if 
they had been forgeries, they could not have been 
palmed off on the Churches after the Apostle's 
death : for what man would have had the face to 
go to the Churches with a new composition, and 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 105 

say, '' This is a letter of Paul, which you re- 
ceived from him during his life-lime, and which 
every man, woman, and child among you, have 
been perfectly familiar with from the time of the 
Apostle to the present day ? The indications 
preserved in the Order of Destiny, (which loses 
nothing) are so strong, that we are forced to ad- 
mit that the Apostle Paul lived in the Apostolic 
age, that he was well known in the Churches, 
that he wrote letters to the different Churches, 
and that these letters were received with great 
reverence by these Churches. 

The question now arises. Have the letters of 
Paul, which we now possess, undergone changes 
and mutilations ? The answer is very simple. 
The letters are constructed according to so strin- 
gent a logical sequence, that any interpolation, in 
any part of them, which should contradict the 
Apostle's statements, would stand out so evident- 
ly that we should be able to point it out, and de- 
nounce it, at once. If the interpolation were a 
mere amplification of the Apostle's words, run- 
ing on in harmony with the even tenor of his logic, 
it would be indeed more difficult to discover it ; 
but then ii would be a matter of little consequence 
whether we discovered it or not. 



106 AN A PRIORI 

Now Paul's logic all revolves around a single 
fact, and the Apostle himself says, if this fact be 
not true, that all his preaching is absolutely vain, 
and that the faith of all believers is equally vain. 
The fact is this : — That the Man Christ 
Jesus actually rose from the dead. Paul evident- 
ly believed this fact ; and, in one of his epistles, 
he states that after Christ was raised from the 
dead, he was seen first by Peter, afterward by the 
twelve Apostles, then by more than jive hundred 
persons at one time, the greater part of which 
number were alive at the time he was writing, 
able to corroborate his statement, or to deny it. 
Would the Apostle have dared to say to the 
Churches that there were nearly five hundred per- 
sons among them who had seen our Lord after 
his resurrection, if no such persons existed ? 
We have, therefore, sufficient evidence of the 
following facts : (1) That the Apostle really 
wrote epistles to the churches, epistles which have 
been transmitted to us, (2) That he really 
lived at the time he is generally supposed to have 
lived, (3) That he, and more than five hundred 
others, actually believed they had seen our Lord 
after his resurrection, and (4) That there is as 
much proof of the actual resurrection of our Lord, 
as it is possible that there should be of any histor- 
ical event of the nature. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 107 

Then I came to the practical question of the 
application of all this to my own individual case. 
I had no fears whatever of failing to find accep- 
tance with God, if I sincerely desired it. I had 
known from the beginning, this saying of our 
Lord, '' He that comeih unto me, I will in no 
wise cast out." 

But, I asked — Though I live for the rest of my 
life in communion with God, what if I am finally 
to be damned for what I have already done ? I 
answered — What is it to me whether I am to be 
damned or not ? The question of my private dam- 
nation, is one of altogether minor consequence, 
when considered in this connection. I know the 
truth of God, and will maintain it, and live by it, 
whether I am to be damned or not. Even if I 
am to be damned, I will teach others the truth of 
God, that they at least may live. 



Third Gtrand Epoch. [Realization.] 
First sub epoch : — desire in realization. 



* « » * * 

* * * * 

* * * * « 

* * This is the form of private 
experience which corresponds to the diffusive 
expansion that took place in the Christian Church 
in the first three centuries of its existence. 



Second sub epoch : — reasoning in realization. 

« « « • m 

* * * * 

m * * * m 

* * In individual life, this is the 

Love Fire, the Virgin Tincture, the final prepa- 
10 



110 AN A PRIORI 

ration for the fullness of the tenth form ; but in the 
life of the race, of what certain Theosophists call 
ihe GREAT MAN, it is the preparation for the prac- 
tical manifestation of the doctrines of the King- 
dom of Heaven. The later Fathers, the Scho- 
lastic and Modern Philosophies, the Catholic and 
Protestant Theologies, all concur, in this sub 
epoch, to pave the way for the great consumma- 
tion — -for the Unending Dispensation which is 
shortly to come.* In this sub epoch the world 
now stands : but the eastern sky is red with the 
rays of the Sun of the Second Advent : the night 
is far advanced, the day is at hand ; and the brass 
field-pieces which are about to thunder on every 
plain in Europe, are the John the Baptist who 
shall prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. 
Behold, he cometh with clouds, and all the na- 
tions of the earth shall wail because of him ! 
for all the powers of this world shall be utterly 
destroyed, and the might of the Universal Empire 
shall be established in their stead. 

I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it, saith Jehovah ; 
And it shall not stand, until he come whose right 

it is ; — 
To him will I give it! 

* See Note M. 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Ill 



Third sub epoch : — realization in realization. 



* * Tn individual life, this is the 
entrance into the Holy Ternary, the deliver- 
ance of the soul from the triple bondage : in the 
life of the race, it is the coming down of the New 
Jerusalem from God out of Heaven. The Master 
prayed, '' Our Father who art in Heaven, hal- 
lowed be thy Name : thy Kingdom come : thy 
Will be done, ON Earth as it is in heaven :" — 
this prayer of our Lord will be fulfilled. He 
prayed also, that his disciples all might be ONE : 
'' as thou Father art in me, (he said) and I in 
thee, I pray that they may be ONE in us : that 
they all maybe ONE, even as we are ONE." — 
New light will break forth from the Gospel, and 
the NEW CHRISTIANITY* will establish it- 
self in the world, — a Christianity as much tran- 
scending the one now known in the Churches, as 
this last transcends the religion of types and shad- 
ows revealed through Moses. ^ ^ 

# #- # # # 



* See Note N. 



APPENDIX. 



[ A.] 



THE SERIES BY SEVENS.* 

The Ist Fountain Spirit: — This is a dark 
knitting power, secret and hidden ; and is mani- 
fested in moral relations, as avarice — not avarice 
in its mere relation to money, but a sort of univer- 
sal passion, a love of fame, power, pleasure, &c. 
not because of their uses, but because of the se- 



* The Seven moments or stages, in which the soul passes 
from the darkness of its own quality into the light of the 
second Principle, are correspondencies of the Seven days, or 
epochs, of the Creation of the Material Universe. Accord- 
ing to the Theosophists, the soul, which is a living roof 
of Fire, is, when considered in itself alone, the abstracted 
austere element of Fire, remaining secret and hidden in 
its own qaality ; in which quality, as in the glowing coal 
the flame whereof is extinct, the dark life bums. The 
Theosophists compare the life of the soul to a flame ; and 
affirm that when it is confined and turned in upon itself, it 
feeds upon itself with a fierce internal fury : this internal 
self-consumption is called by them, the lofty Wrath-Fire 
of Eternity. 



116 APPENDIX. 

cret satisfaction derivable from their possession. 
It is the harsh ASTRINGENCY, the hidden root 
tending to irapenetrabihty, and to the locking up 
of itself in itself. It is blind, without knowledge, 
caring for nothing but itself, recognizing nothing 
but itself, exercising neither attraction nor repul- 
sion. 

The 2d Fountain Spirit : — This finds its root 
in the first, which it begins to vanquish, it is rep- 
resented in moral relations by pride, and tends, 
in man, to isolation. He who is under its influ- 
ence, recognizes his fellows, but not in any love ; 
he wishes them neither good nor evil, and cares 
for them not at all. By the energy of the first 
Fountain, man falls into the hard astringency, and 
collects himself in himself, recognizing nothing 
which is not himself ; but, by that of the second, 
he recognizes other men, though only to assert his 
independence, and to isolate himself from them. 
The energy of the second Fountain is sweet, mild 
and meek, in its action outwardly upon other men, 
and manifests itself in connection with the first 
under the form of melancholy. For melancholy 
comes from the hard astringency, partly subdued 
by pride, recognizing and isolating itself. Thus, 
because the outward relations are not completed, 
the meekness and astringency spend their energy 



APPENDIX. 117 

upon each other, and the soul becomes a prey to 
bitter raging torment. If the bond of the astrin- 
gency were not broken, all would be as if in a 
dark cold prison ; as stones and dead concrete 
matter ; but the proud self-isolating spirit breaks 
this austere band, and comes into sad and cold re- 
lations with that which is without ; but in the heart 
itself, the second Fountain, by its reiSex influence 
or energy, works up the astringency into a con- 
suming raging fierceness. Thus the austere band 
is broken, both as regards the within and the with- 
out, or the subjective and the objective. 

The 3c? Fountain Sjjirit : — The consuming 
fierceness and raging torment, are carried to their 
height in this Fountain, which manifests itself in 
moral relations in violent desire and envy, 
sometimes also in VANITY, and AMBITION. This 
is the bitter or anguish Fountain, and tends to 
break up the isolation of the two first Fountains. 
As the second Fountain is the cause of life, so this 
is the cause of distinct perceptions, and of the 
thoughts ; for it brings man more into relations 
with that which is not himself. If the third Foun- 
tain be moved too much, it kindles the second and 
the astringent, until all becomes a stinging, burn- 
ing poison. The Thosophists say that this is 
the spirit of the zealous, jealous, unquenchable 



118 APPENDIX. 

wrath of God, which is (according to them) in 
part also the punishment of the damned. They 
afSrm also that the dark spirits are given over to 
the anguish of their own souls, desperation and 
the raging of hell being introduced into the crea- 
tures, like gall into the body : but this, they con- 
tinue, is very good for souls under probation, in 
stirring up life. 

The 4tth Fountain Spirit : — When the raging 
torment introduced by the third Fountain becomes 
intolerable, then man comes still more into rela- 
tions ; fc^r the fire-flash from the anguish, is the 
fourth Fountain Spirit, which manifests itself in 
moral relations as anger. The whole creation is 
actuated by this fourth Fountain, which is the 
great propelling force which keeps it in continual 
operation. 

Man, at this period of his life's development, 
finds himself to be fallen among thieves ; and the 
theives are these four Fountain Spirits, which 
constitute, and are, the foundation of his existence. 
Astringency; binding avarice ; uncontrollable pride; 
anguish or envy ; fierce, furious anger ; hold the 
soul so that it hates light, and every pure spirit 
that brings light — so that it loves evil, delighting 
in those who practice it. It is murderous, and 



I 

APPENDIX. 119 

isolates itself from the Jight, refusing to believe 
that it is light. 

Let the philanthropists listen to this : — Who- 
ever would bring the love-light which saves, to a 
dark spirit shut up in the four first Fountains, 
must be prepared to meet with a reception which 
agrees with the dark fire nature. Because of the 
pridcj the understanding of the fire-spirit is dark- 
ened, so that he despises him who brings light ; 
because of the astringency^ the fire-spirit will take 
from its best friend all that he hath ; because of 
the envy^ it is filled with hatred to him that brings 
truth ; because of the anger ^ it is dangerous and 
violent. It cannot act without exercising these 
four Fountains, for these are the fountains and 
springs of its life. Whoever, in ancient times, 
endeavored to reform the nations which were 
sunk in the first four Fountains, or forms of na- 
ture, was despised, hated, robbed, crucified, and 
slain. 

It is stated by an eminent Theosophist, that 
the following properties belong to the Fire Ele- 
ment, by reason of the four Fountain Spirits, 
viz : fierceness, wrathfulness, sternness, sulphu- 
rousness, salnitrousness, which consume, devour, 
and elevate themselves ; so that this fire essence 



120 APPENDIX. 

'appears evidently to be a dark, harsh, hard, bitter, 
anguishing, fierce, fiery, wrathful, stern, brim- 
stony, salnitrous, consuming, self-elevating Fire 
Spirit. 

The 5th Fountain Spirit: — This is the out- 
breaking of the Magia, in concurrence with the 
exterior love-light element, tending to overcome 
the intolerable anguish of the preceding Fountains, 
by transcending them, and entering into a new, a 
higher, and a spiritual sphere. 

The Qth Fountain Spirit : — Into this form of 
nature, all the reasoning of the series by 7s is 
thrown. We find in it, therefore, a rapt contem- 
plation, lofty speculations on the theory of the 
universe, and a forward and daring movement of 
genius : this is the form or moment for gigantic 
ccsmognies. 

The Tth Fountain Spirit : — This is the unifi- 
cation of the character, whereby the sensibility, 
intelligence, and will, are brought to act in har- 
mony — -whereby all the Fountain Spirits are made 
to conduce to one perfect life : whereby the 
weight and force of the first form, unites itself 
with the self-centering dignity of the second, and 
this with the springing vitality of the third, and 
this last with the fiery energy of the fourth, and 



APPENDIX. 121 

SO on through the expansive love-fire of the fifth, 
and the towering intelligence of the sixth, till they 
all meet and wrestle together in joy, for the exalt- 
ing of the will of God, in the full harmony of the 
seventh. 



11 



122 APPENDIX. 



[B. ] 

The List of generations from Adam, through 
Cain, to Lamech, is as follows : 

1. ADAM. 

2. CAIN. 

3. ENOCH. 

4. IRAD. 

5. MEHUJAEL. 

6. METHUSAEL. 

7. LAMECH. 

This list gives us from Adam to Lamech, a 
perfect series of Seven terms : and we may no- 
tice that Lamech, who appears again in another 
symbolical list among the posterity of Shem, 
lived exactly 777 years — " and all the days of 
Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven 
years : and he died." 

Eve had a third son, whom she called Seth, 
that is foundation ; because in him God had 
founded for her another seed, to replace that of 
Abel. The series founded in Seth, gives us a 
complete logical series of 9 terms : 

1. SETH. 

2. ENOS. 

3. CAINAN. 



APPENDIX. 123 

4. MAHALALEEL. 

5. JARED. 

6. ENOCH. 

7. METHUSELAH. 

8. LAMECH. 

9. NOAH* 

Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. 
The sons of Japhet form a regular series of 7s : 

1. GOMER. 

2. MAGOG. 

3. MADAI. 

4. JAVAN. 

5. TUBAL. 

6. MESHECH. 

7. TIRAS. 

The sons of these, grand-sons of Japhet, as 
given in the connection, make another series by 
7s. 

The sons of Ham, were Cush, Misraim, Phut, 
and Canaan : the list of Ham's descendants through 
Cush, form a regular series by 7s : 



. * The reader will find, in Leroux's treatise of Humani- 
ty, article My thus of Adam, a full explanation of the in- 
terior meaning of the names which occur in the list of 
generations from Adam to Noah. 



124 APPENDIX. 

1. CUSH. 

2. SEBA. 

3. HAVILAH. 

4. SABTAH. 

5. RAAMAH. 

6. SABTECHAH. 

7. NIMROD. 

The descendants of Ham, through Misraim, 
form a regular series by 9s : 

1. MISRAIM. 

2. LUDIM. 

3. ANAMIM, 

4. LEHABIM. 

5. NAPHTUHIM. 

6. PATHRUSIM. 

7. CASLUHIM. 

8. CAPHTORIM. 

To which add — 9. PHILISTIM — who is express- 
ly mentioned in the connection, as having come 
out of Casluhim. — But this is evidently a list of 
tribes and races ; and the coming out of Philistim 
from Casluhim, is evidently, not a birth, but a 
procession forth as a colony. 

The descendants of Shem, as was made evident 
in the text, form a regular series by 9s. 

If we pass to the New Testament, we shall 



APPENDIX. 125 

find two lists of names, differing from each other, 
ahhough each purports to give the genealogy of 
our Lord. One of these lists is found in the be- 
ginning bf the Gospel of Matthew, the other is 
found in the Gospel of Luke. If we count the 
names given in the list of Matthew, we find them 
to amount — including Abraham and Christ — to 
forty one generations. But the list does not 
agree with the parallel lists in the Old Testa- 
ment ; for example, Matthew says that Ozias was 
the son of Joram, while the author of the Chron- 
icles tells us that he was the great-great-grandson 
of Joram. The insertion of the names from the 
book of Chronicles, would lengthen Matthew's 
list by three terms, making it to number forty four 
generations, instead of forty one. — But we have 
neither time nor space to notice the inaccuracies 
of this list. The idea which Matthew intended 
to convey, is to be found, not in the enumeration 
of the names, but in the final summing up. In 
the 17th verse of the first Chapter of his Gospel, 
he says, " So all the generations from Abraham 
to David are 14 generations ; and from David 
unto the carrying away into Babylon are 14 
generations ; and from the carrying away into 
Babylon unto Christ are 14 generations." He is 
determined, as is evident from this summing up, 
which by no means agrees either with his own list, 

11* 



126 APPENDIX. 

or with those in the Old Testament, to make three 
series, of 14 generations each, between Abraham 
and Christ. — Now what was the object of Mat- 
thew in forcing the Old Testament tables, till they 
could be made to enter within certain definite, 
and apparently artificial, limits ? It was this : — 

Matthew wished to state in a symbolical man- 
ner, that our Lord came in the last age of the 
dispensation which commenced with Abraham ; 
and he looked upon the movement of that dispen- 
sation as taking place in 7 distinct epochs ; he 
looked upon these epochs as being themselves, 
each of them, composed of 7 sub epochs — sev- 
en ages, therefore, composed each of them of 
seven minor ages ; or 49 sub epochs in all. 
We have an illustration in the book of the Rev- 
elation, of this manner of conceiving history. 
The prophetic account of the dispensation that 
was to come, was written, according to the rev- 
elator, in a book sealed with 7 seals ; when the 
first seal was broken, the first epoch became rea- 
lized ; when the second seal was broken, the 
second epoch became realized ; and so on to the 
seventh seal, where the prophet, desiring to be 
more particular, divided the epoch into 7 sub 
epochs, writing the history of the opening of the 
seventh seal in 7 parts^ each part following the 



APPENDIX. 127 

sounding of one of the 7 trumpets which were 
*given to the angels that stood before God. — Mat- 
thew teaches that our Lord opens the seventh 
age, the completion of the dispensation in Abra- 
ham. He says that between Christ and Abra- 
ham, there had been three times fourteen genera- 
tions, that is, six times seven generations, that is, 
again, that six epochs of 7 terms each, had pass- 
ed away, in the Abrahamic dispensation, before 
our Lord came ; and that he came to bring in 
the seventh age, or last age of that dispenation. 

If we pass now to the list given by Luke, and 
count from our Lord, through Joseph, to Abra- 
ham, we shall find from Isaac to our Lord, inclu- 
ding both, just 54 generations ; dividing 54 by 
9, we obtain 6 : there were, therefore, just 6 
complete series of 9s between Abraham and 
Christ. Adding to these 6 series, the series by 
9s from Seth (the son of Adam) to Noah, and 
that from Shem, through Arphaxad, to Abra- 
ham, we have just eight series by 9s. Luke 
represents, therefore, our Lord to have appeared 
at the end of the eighth epoch of 9s, in a grand 
logical series of 9s, commencing at the creation 
of the world. 



128 APPENDIX. 

These lists are symbolical rather than histori- 
cal, and are easily reconciled ; for both writers 
had the same end in view, and actually wrote the 
same thing, viz : that our Lord brought in the 
final dispensation, and the last age of the world. 
The discrepancies between the lists come from 
the fact that Matthew constructed his system by 
7s, and included the history of the Abrahamic 
dispensation only ; while Luke constructed his 
by 9s and included the whole history of the hu- 
man race : — the discrepancies between the lists 
and those in the Old Testament, deserve no very 
serious notice, as they do not affect the symboli- 
cal character of the series. 

One fact, however, may strike the attention : 
the list of Luke has three terms too many, all 
of which occur in the series between Adam and 
Abraham. Cainaan, who appears between A phax- 
ad and Salah, is interpolated — he does not ap- 
pear in the original series in the Old Testament. 
Seth and Adam, because they indicate mere 
points of departure, are not counted in the series 
by 9s. Subtracting Adam, Seth, and Cainaan, 
there remain exactly 72 generations, or 8 full se- 
ries by 9s. 



APPENDIX. 129 



[C. ] 



" This world was involved in darkness, incom- 
prehensible to the intelligence, undiscoverable by 
the reason, unrevealed, and immersed, as it were, 
in all parts, in a sound sleep. 

*' Then the great Self-Existing Power, him- 
self unseen, but rendering this world visible, with 
the five elements, and other principles, manifested 
himself in the fullness of his glory, dispelling the 
darkness. 

'' He whom the spirit alone can perceive, whose 
essence escapes the organs of the senses, who 
is without visible parts, eternal, the soul of all 
being, whom no one can comprehend, unveiled 
his own splendor. 

" Having resolved to cause the various crea- 
tures to emanate from his own substance, at first, 
by a thought^ he produced the waters, and placed 
in them a productive seed * * * * 

'' The waters have been called naras^ because 
they were produced by Nara (the Divine Spir- 
it) ; and, as these waters were his first place of 



130 APPENDIX. 

motion (Ayana,) he has thence been named 
Narayana, or He that moves upon the Watera.^^ 
Zatvs of Menu. 

''The nature of God is such that he cannot 
fall under the observation of the senses : he can 
be neither measured, nor divided, and nothing can 
resemble him. He is neither fire, nor air, nor 
water, nor wind : but all things are by him. For, 
being perfect, he has reserved perfection for him- 
self alone ; and he has willed to create and ordain 

the universe." — Fragment of Hermes Trisme- 
gistus. 

''God is the first, indestructible, unbegotten, 
indivisible, eternal, dissimilar ; the dispenser of 
all good ; incorruptible ; the best of the good, the 
wisest of the wise. He is the Father of equity 
and justice, self-taught, physical, perfect and 
wise, and the only inventor of the Sacred Philos- 
ophy. 

" * * The stable God is called by the Gods 
Silent^ and is said to consent with mind, and to 
be known by souls through mind alone. 

u * * ^ Containing all things in the one summit 
of his own thyparxis, he himself subsists wholly 
beyond." — Oracles of Zoroaster. 



APPENDIX. 131 

'' God is one, eternal, immutable, incompre- 
'* hensible ; he created and ordained all things 
" by his Wisdom, and he sustains and preserves 
*' them by his Providence ; he is everywhere, 
'' and no place contains him ; he is everything, 
'' but is neither of the things which are by him 
*' and have received their being from him ; he 
'^ hears everything, sees everything, and pene- 
*' trates the most secret thoughts; he fills the 
'' depths of the abyss, and the immensity of Hea- 
*' ven ; — knowledge, welfare, virtue, light, life, 
*' these are in him alone, and they are him. He 
*Ms, at once, infinitely good, and infinitely just. 
'^ He loves men with a peculiar love, and has cre- 
*' ated them only that he may make them happy ; 
'^ but, since he is holiness and justice themselves, 
'^ he renders those happy, and those only, who 
^' resemble him through justice and holiness ; and 
^' he punishes those who have corrupted the holy 
'^ character which he impressed upon them when 
" he created them in his own image." 



Detached passages from Plato^ hrougJit 



together hy Dacier. 



132 APPENDIX, 



[D. ] 



'^ What is then, Socrates, the manner in which 
other things partake of IDEAS, since they can 
receive them neither partially nor in their totality ? 

By Jupiter ! exclaimed Socrates, it appears to 
me by no means easy to determine this manner. 

But what say you to this ? 

To what ? 

T imagine you come in this manner to the unity 
of each idea : when several things appear great 
to you — perhaps, in contemplating them, a single 
and same idea seems to you to exist in all these 
things, and that is what leads you to think of the 
unity of greatness. 

That is true, said Socrates. 

But what ! if you consider together, with the 
same view of your soul, not only greatness in it- 
self, but also all the other things which are great, 
will you not see a new unity of greatness, which 
makes, by necessity, all these things to appear 
great. 

So it would seem. 

There will appear to you, then, another idea 
of greatness, besides greatness in itself and the 



APPENDIX. 133 

things which partake of it ; and, above all these, 
a new idea which will communicate greatness to 
them all ; so that each idea would cease to be 
one in your eyes, and would become multiple to 
infinity. 

But, Parmenides, observed Socrates, each of 
these ideas is perhaps a thought, which can be 
conceived to exist in no place more easily than 
in the soul ; in this case, at least, each idea would 
preserve its unity, and would be no longer liable 
to the objections you have just made. 

What then ! replied Parmenides, each of these 
thoughts is one, but is the thought a thought of 
nothing ? 

That is impossible. 

Is it the thought of something ? 

Yes. 

Of something which is, or of something which 
is not ? 

Of something which is. 

Of something that is one, which this thought 
conceives in all things as a real form ? 

Without doubt. 

Well ! is not this, which is thought with such 
a character of unity, an idea, since it is always 
the same in all things ? 

That, again, appears to follow necessarily. 
12 



134 APPENDIX. 

But, continued Parmenides, if all other things 
appear to you to partake of ideas, does it not also 
appear to be necessary, either, that everything 
should be formed of thoughts, and that everything 
should think, or, that everything should be 
thought, but deprived of the faculty of thinking ? 

That is nonsense, replied Socrates. But this, 
Parmenides, if I am not mistaken, is the proba- 
ble truth : it is that ideas subsist as models of na- 
ture^ and that other things become like them, and 
are their copies, and that things partake of ideas 
only by bearing a resemblance to those ideas. 

If any object, said Parmenides, resembles an 
idea, is it possible that the idea should not bear a 
likeness to that which is formed in its image, so 
far as it resembles it, or is it possible that the like 
should be unlike the like ? 

It is not. 

Is there not a vehement necessity that the like 
v^ith its like should partake of one and the same 
idea ? 

Most assuredly. 

That by the participation of which things are 
caused to be like, is it not the idea ? 

Exactly. 

It is therefore impossible that anything should 
be like its idea^ or that an idea should be like any 



APPENDIX. 135 

other thing : for, otherwise, besides the idea, 
there would always appear another idea ; and, if 
this last should resemble anything, there would be 
still another ; and new ideas would forever con- 
tinue to manifest themselves, if we suppose the 
idea capable of becoming like the thing which 
partakes of it. 

That is very true. 

It is not^ thereforcyby means of resemblance 
that other things partake of ideas ^ and we must 
seek for some other process of participation. 

So it appears. 

You see, therefore, O Socrates, the difficulty 
which besets the way of him who affirms the ex- 
istence of absolute ideas. 

Perfectly." Plato: — The Parmenides. 



136 APPENDIX. 



[E. ] 

'' I pass to China. B7 the side of Confucius, 
I find Bouddha under the name of Fo, and Lao- 
Tseu. Now Bouddha is (h'ke Vischnou) an in- 
carnation of the Divine Word; and Lao -Tseu is 
the doctrine itself, or the metaphysics, of this 
Word, this creative Logos. The Taote-king^ 
the book of Lao-Tseu, speaking of the Divine 
Reason, of the Logos of Plato, of the Word of 
the Christians — of the Narayana of India, in a 
word — represents it as saying : — '' 1 was before 
'^ the manifestation of any corporeal form : I ap- 
'^ peared before the Supreme beginning : I ope- 
'^ rated at the source of the as yet unorganized 
^' matter : I was present at the development of 
'' the first great mass, and moved in the midst of 
'^ the empty space. '^ Can you not find here, 
both the Brahma Word of the Vedas, which mo- 
ved on the waters before the creation, and the 
Spirit of God of the Bible, which brooded on the 
waters before the same creation ? 

***** What term does St. John make use 
of to designate this Son of God who is God, 
this Reason of God which he distinguishes from 
God, and which makes of the man Jesus, the 



APPENDIX. 137 

Christ ? He calls it Logos : and Plato — what 
name does he give to the Divine Reason which 
he also distinguishes in God ? He calls it, in 
like manner, Logosy or J^ous (reason). And 
Lao-Tseu and his followers, how do they name 
this Divine Reason which was anterior to the ere* 
ation, and the cause of the creation ? They also 
call it the Reason of God, Tao. 

" Shall I recall to your mind the astonishment 
that was expressed by our learned men when they 
found the ideas of Pythagoras and Plato, in the 
Tao'te-king 9 How, they asked, could such 
a communication have taken place ? Whence 
came these analogies ? Did Lao-Tseu borrow his 
doctrines from the Greek Philosophers, or did 
the Greek Philosophers borrow theirs from Lao- 
Tseu ? Learned orientalists, the thing is not so 
astonishing as you think ! For it is not Lao-Tseu 
alone, and Plato, who have known these doc- 
trines ; this metaphysics was known to all the na- 
tions of remote antiquity. 

'' But we ought to compare the doctrines of Lao- 
Tseu with Chiistianity, rather than with Pytha- 
goras and Plato. For neither Pythagoras, nor 
Plato, nor their disciples, anthropomorphized the 
Divine Word as did the disciples of Lao-Tseu, 

12* 



138 APPENDIX. 



and the disciples of Jesus Christ. The Chinese 
Legend relating to Lao-Tseu is in part translated 
for lis : — after repeating the axiom of the Tao-te- 
king, that '' The Tao, or the Word, was the 
' great ancestor of the subtle and primordial ele- 
' ments, thie organizer of the earth and the heav- 
' ens ; who took root in the supreme repose and 
' the supreme void, before the great origin (the 
^ creation) ; who dispersed the elements in space, 
' and dissipated the darkness," the Sacred Le- 
gend adds : '' He has transformed his person by 
' taking upon himself a mortal body ; he has 
^ partaken of all the destinies of this world of 
^ mud and dust. He appeared in the world as a 
' great sage ; he observed the righteous and the 
' wicked through succeeding generations, and 
^ established his doctrines according to the times. 
' He has been, in the order of the times, the 
' great teacher of the generations. He appeared 
' among men, but did not resemble the crowd of 
' men among whom he was counted." Pierre 
Lero ux . — Christianity . 



APPENDIX. 189 



[ F. ] 



''No one will fear to affirm that the power of 
self-motion forms the essence and the attribute of 
the soul : for that which receives motion from an 
exterior cause, is not alive ; while that which 
internally gives motion to itself, is alive." Pla- 
to, — The Phcddrus, 



^^ The Athenian, Since we have attained to 
this point, answer to this ? 

Clinias. To what ? 

The Athenian, When the first kind of move- 
ment is found in any substance whatever, earthy, 
watery, fiery, simple, or composite, how shall we 
say that this substance is affected ? 

Clinias. Do you not ask if we should say of 
this substance, that it is alive, when it thus moves 
itself? 

The Athenian. Yes, if it is alive ? 

Clinias, Without doubt. 

The Athenian, But what ! when we see liv- 



140 APPENDIX. 

ing substances, must we not recognize that the 
vital principle in them is soul itself ?* 

Clinias, It can be no other thing." Plato* — 
Xth, book of the Laws, 



* Evidently not individual soul, however, but what Wal- 
do Emerson calls the Over- Soul; for, otherwise, the argu- 
ments for immortality, from which these passages are ex- 
tracted, would be simply and plainly absurd. 



APPENDIX. 141 



[€-. ] 

'' Moses said to Adam, as they were disputing 
'' before God, Thou art Adam, whom God cre- 
'' ated and animated with the breath of life, and 
" caused to be worshiped by the angels, and 
'' placed in Paradise, from whence mankind have 
'' been expelled for thy fault. Whereto Adam 
" answered. Thou art Moses, whom God chose 
'' for his Apostle, and intrusted with his w^ord, 
'^ by giving thee the tables of the law, and whom 
'^ he vouchsafed to admit to discourse with him- 
'' self. How many years dost thou find the law 
'' was written before I was created ? Says Moses, 
'' Forty. And dost thou not find, replied Adam, 
" these words therein — And Adam rebelled 
" against his Lord, and transgressed ? Which 
'' Moses confessing. Dost thou therefore blame 
*' me, continued he^ for doing that which God 
'' wrote of me that I should do, forty years be- 
'^ fore I was created ; nay, for w^hat was decreed 
'' concerning me forty thousand years before the 
'^ creation of heaven and earth ?" 

We meet the difficulty stated in the foregoing 
Mahometan parable, by denying first of all, and 



142 APPENDIX. 

in the front, the whole doctrine of the DiviKE 
Fore-knowledge. 

Where is the Theologian who will hesitate to 
affirm that God dwells in a timeless present, an 
eternal now ? Time had its birth among the 
changes and mutations of nature, and there only- 
can it have a present existence : but, because 
God created nature, he transcends all nature ; 
and, because he transcends all nature, he tran- 
scends all TIME. God lives in eternity — not an 
eternity which is time stretched out till it becomes 
immeasurable, and which still admits of the rela- 
tions of before and q/ier, but an eternity which 
altogether transcends time. With God there is 
neither /ore-knowledge nor a/ier-knowledge. If it 
be unlawful to attribute memory and imagination 
to God, if it be unlawful to say that he recollects 
past events, reproducing them to his mind, is it 
not equally unlawful to attribute to him the faculty 
of fore-knowledge ? Can he possess fore-knowl- 
edge without possessing memory, seeing that 
these are correlatives of each other, and that the 
possession of either of them, would subject him to 
all the conditions of time ? God created time 
when he created the worlds, and if there were no 
worlds, there would be no time : will any one 
say that God cannot exist without the worlds ? 



APPENDIX. 143 

God, indeed, KNOWS all events, even those 
which, to uSj are yet veiled in the future, but this 
knowledge is present knowledge, and neither /ore- 
knowledge, nor a/ier-knowledge. 

The fact of God's perfect knowledge of all our 
actions, if it militate at all against our freedon], 
must do it in one or the other of the two ways 
which follow : — either (1) God computes the or- 
der of Destiny, and sees in operation a chain of 
causes and effects which will render every act 
of our lives necessarily what it will be, and not 
otherwise ; and, seeing this chain, he knows pre- 
cisely what the future course of our lives will be : 
in which case, our actions are supposed to be 
determined, not in any way by his knowledge, but 
by the force of Destiny ; or (2) God knows our 
actions because he himself determines them, be- 
cause he makes them to be as they are, because, 
in fine, his knowledge is a mere consequence of 
his creative power. Let us examine these hy- 
potheses separately. 

(1) The first hypothesis begs the whole ques- 
tion ; for God, when he computes the order of 
Destiny, may very well take into the calculation 
those modifications of that order which result 
from the intervention of the Will of Man. If it 



144 APPENDIX. 

be granted that the determination of our actions 
is effected by powers independent of the Will of 
God, whose operation God contemplates, where 
is the necessity for denying that the Will of Man 
is one of those powers ? Is there any reason to 
deny that God can contemplate the operation of 
Man's Will, as well as the operation of other pow- 
ers ? Moreover, we learn, from observation in 
consciousness, that the Will of Man does actually 
operate. The mere fact of God's knowing all 
our actions, no more interferes with our liberty in 
performing those actions, than would the fact of 
any individual man's possessing the same knowl- 
edge. 

(2) The second hypothesis is a mere reproduc- 
tion, in a different form, of the theory that God 
creates all things out of nothing, and that there is 
no operation in the world which is not the mediate 
ov immediate operation of the Divine WilL 
What evidence have we that God created all 
things out of nothing ? — 

Verily, none at all ! No one can pretend that 
the theory of the creation out of nothing, has a 
foundation in Scripture. It is indeed written 
that ''God created the heavens and the earth," 
but where is it written that he created them out of 
nothing 9 '' The Hebrew uses the word bara, 



APPENDIX. 146 

to Jorm^ to bring into order ^ to signify creation ^ 
having no word which accurately expresses crea- 
tion out of nothing. ^^ — Robimon^s Calmet. It is 
somewhat singular that Moses should be made, by 
the Theologians, to teach a doctrine which he 
could not have taught even if he had desired so to 
do. How could Moses have taught that the 
worlds were created out of nothing, when there 
was no expression in the language he used capable 
of conveying such an idea ? Why did not the 
Hebrews, if, as the Theologians say, they be- 
lieved in a creation out of nothing, invent some 
word, or at least some circumlocution, to express 
so important a conception ? But is there any 
evidence whatever that the notion of a creation 
out of nothing ever entered the head of Moses, 
or the head of any other ancient Hebrew ? If 
they had any such notion, they preserved a very 
mysterious silence in relation to it, and it is cer- 
tainly very useless to speculate concerning the 
private opinions of Moses — those of which he did 
not see fit to give any indication whatever in his 
books. — 

But the author of the epistle to the Hebrews 

says : '' By faith we understand that the worlds 

•* were framed by the Word of God, so that the 

** things which are seen were not made of those 

13 



** v^llldlv do appear."— This passage, so far from 
sfatihg dial the worlds v^ere made out of nothings 
s^ys that the things which are seen were made of 
tlicisewhidh are unseen, the visible from the invis- 
iBle. Let lis' dbiiipare this passage with a par- 
allel passage from one of ihel sacred books of 
Kidia : — ^^ They who are acquainted with day 
*' and night, know that a day of Brahma is a 
''thousand revolutions of the Yoogs, and that his' 
*' liight extendeth for a thousand more. On the 
''coming forth of that day, all things proceed^ 
" ft*om invisibility to visibility ; so, on the ap- 
^^ firoach of night, they are all dissolved away 
" ihto'that which is called inmii/e. The uni- 
" Vefse, even, having existed, is again dissolved"; 
" a'hd now again, on the approach of day, it is' 
*'' reproduced. That which, on the dissolution* 
''of all things else, i^ not destroyed, is superior, 
'"' d'tid of atibther nature ffoih that TJi^ibility ; \t\r 
^hvisibl^ iM eternal;^" 



* Let us lay down two classes of being, the seen and the 
unseen : the unseen, eternal in their relations ; the s^eii\* 
never the same, but ever changing." Plato. — The Ph(B- 
don. , . . ^ .,,.. , . . , :^ 

The Apostle Paul says, in his epistle to the Cofihihi- 
a'ftS'," "We aim ri6t at the things w^hich ate seen-, but at the 
thinffs which are unseen : for the things which are seen 
are temporal, but the things which are uhs^'en are et^r- 
rtaa:" 



APPENDIX. 1^7 

Will it be said that the writer had no relations 
with India, and therefore could not have borrowed 
the technical language of its religious philosophy ? 
Unfortunately, the Platonists, with whose doc- 
trines the writer was unquestionably acquainted, 
used the terms, the visible and the invisible^ the 
seen and the unseen^ in precisely the way tliey 
were used in India. 



I 



148 APPENDIX. 



[H. 1 



The affirmation that God created the worlds 
OUT OP NOTflma, annihilates itself : 

For, if God created them out of nothing, their 
creation was evidently possible to him. This 
possibility existed as a necessary condition of the 
creation, before the worlds were created ; for, had 
the creation not been possible, it is evident that 
it would never have taken place. The possibility 
existed, therefore, in the logical order (for we 
have nothing to do here with chronology) prior to 
the creation. — This possibility was not created, 
but existed prior to the very first act of creation ; 
for, if it was created, its creation was possible, and 
this new possibility preceded the creation of the 
created possibility, else that creation could not 
have taken place. This possibility of a possibili- 
ty, if it was created, must have been preceded 
by still another possibility, and thus, by continuing 
the hypothesis, we fall upon an infinite series — 
an evident sign of the absurdity of the supposi- 
tion. 



APPENDIX. 149 

Therefore the creation of the worlds was pre- 
ceded by the possibility of that creation, and this 
possibility was itself uncreated. 

The very first act of the Divine Will must 
have been preceded by the possibility of that act, 
else it could not have taken place. This possi- 
bility is independent of the Divine Will, for it is 
anterior to the very first act of that Will, and is, 
indeed, that upon which the operation of the Di- 
vine Will depends. 

It is evident, therefore, that two Powers cpn^ 
curred in the creation of the Worlds, (1) Tfee 
Divine Will, and (2) That which made the cre- 
ation of the Worlds, and the operation of the Di- 
vine Will, possible. 

God, therefore, is not only the voluntary causae 
of the existence of the universe, he is also the 
eminent cause ; and be knows the things which 
are made, partly by perceiving them in the opera-^ 
tions of his Will, and partly by perceiving them in. 
Himself as eminent cause. 

The soul of man has its root of being, not in 
the Divine Will, but in God as eminent cause; 
for the Soul, as is made ev^Tdejt in the text, tr^nr 

13^ 



150 APPENDIX, 

scends all time so far as its essence is concerned, 
and therefore never began to be, and never can 
cease lo be — that is, it is uncreated. The possi- 
bilily of the Soul's existence, is indeed that root 
of substance, hid in God as ennnent cause, which 
is the essential being of the soul. 

The Divine Will depends, for its ability to op- 
erate, upon its possibility inhering in the very 
Being of God, and the Will of Man depends also, 
for its ability to operate, upon i'/^ possibility, inher- 
ing in the same Being of God : the Will of Man, 
therefore, having its ground and root in the soul's 
substance, is dependent upon the Being, but not 
upon the Will of God. God sees all our actions 
in himself; he sees our subjective movements in 
himself as eminent cause, and he sees the ope- 
ration of the circumstances which act upon us in 
bis Will : and thus he sees us as free agents, be- 
ings capable of acting in opposition to his will — 
beings whose actions he cannot control by his 
Will, because those actions have their origin in 
regions of Divine Essence as ancient and as re- 
mote as is the source of the Divine Will iiself : 
beings whose actions he cannot control by his 
Will, because the Will of God is subsequent in the 
order of nature to the sublime ground which is the 
spring of the activity of the human soul. 



APPENDIX. 151 

Thus the doctrine of a creation out of nothing, 
defeats iiself ; for it is equivalent to the doctrine 
that aH creation is effected by the leading forth of 
visible things, through the energy of the Divine 
Will, from POTENTIALITY inio actuality. God 
brings forth, according to his Will, fronn potenti- 
ality into actuality, just what he pleases ; but 
when any human soul is brought into actual rela- 
tions, it acts from itself, independently of God's 
Will, for it acts from an origin transcending 
God's Will. — God may drive any human soul 
back into potentiality, that is, may destroy its life, 
but while he suffers it to live, he cannot alter its 
will by any direct exertion of power. If he 
wishes to alter its will, he must change the cir- 
cumstances which surround it, or change its bodily 
conditions. In short, he cannot change the sub- 
jective action of the soul, and, if he wish to change 
its life, he must do it by changing the objective 
element with which it concurs, or by changing the 
instrument by which the concurrence is effected. 

Thus there are two orders of Will operating in 
the world, the Will of God, and the Will of 
Man, and these, because of the Divine Ground 
in the Still Eternity of their spring and origin, 
are independent of each other. Three powers, 
therefore, govern the movement of all things in 



152 APPENDIX. 

the world : (1) Providence or the Will of God, 
(2) The Will of Man, (3) Destiny. The first 
two of these powers are uncreated ; the last is a 
created power. 

Is this Pantheism ? Nay, is it not the doc- 
trine which truly and especially avoids all Pan- 
theism ? Atheism sinks the Will of God, and the 
Will of Man, in the movement of Destiny : Pan- 
theism sinks Man and Nature in the Will of God : 
and New England Transcendantalism sinks God 
and Nature in Man. The true doctrine must be 
sought in a Synthesis of the operation of the three 
great Powers. 

'' In the whole world (says Zoroaster) shineth 
a Triad, over which a Monad rules." [3+1=4] 

" Meditate (says Pythagoras) on the principles 
I have given you, strive to put them in practice, 
learn to love them. They will conduct you to- 
ward divine virtue ; I swear it by him who has 
transmitted into our souls the HoLY QuATERNARYj 
source of eternal nature,^ ^ 



APPENDIX. 153 



[I.] 



Man is a Soul and a Body, which are united 
in the movement of the present terrestrial Life. 
It is necessary, if we would attain to the compre- 
hension of the present condition of our Lives, 
that we should follow up, not only the movements 
of Spiritual progress and transition which are 
preserved for us in our memories, but also the 
terms of the Serial progression of animated exis- 
tence : for this progression furnishes us the key of 
our present Physical constitution. Man is neith- 
er a Soul, nor a Body, but a Soul and a Body, 
which are one in the unity of the terrestrial Life. 

*' I pray (says the Apostle) that your whole 
Spikit (or Life), and Soul, and Body, may be 
preserved blameless," &c. 



154 APPENDIX. 



[J. ] 



Life may be well represented, in rnathenDail- 
cal language, as a function of two variables : 
LiFE=/(a?, y.) Let x represent the Free Soul, 
and y the circumstances furnished by Destiny, 
If X remain constant while y varies, the Life will 
derive its whole character from the movement of 
Destiny — this is the condition of animal life; if t/ 
remain constant while x varies, the life will derive 
its whole character from the free action of the 
vital principle — this is the life which we sometimes 
suppose the angels to possess. In human life, 
both X and y vary at every moment ; thus our life 
is on one side free, and on the other necessitated l 
and every one of our acts of life, is at once free 
and determined. 



APPENDIX. 156 



[K. ]! 



When we see a stone fall, we do not say it is 
alive ; for we know that it does not move itself. 
If, however, we should see a stone move, first in 
one direction, and then in another, in a manner to 
convince us that it moved by virtue of a power 
within itself, capable of originating motion, we 
should say, at once, that it was alive. A stone 
falls, however, by reason of the general force of 
gravitation. 

All motion must be originated by a Living 
Being, for, though it may be communicated by 
contact, it certainly cannot originate itself. The 
motion of the Universe, which involves all crea- 
tures in its course, from the immense planets to 
the minutest insect that dwells in a drop of water, 
and which is too great to have been originated by 
any of the parts, is, rightly considered, a sufficient 
proof of the existence of a Living God. The 
power of gravitation may move a stone, but it is 
God who originates the power of gravitation. 



156 APPENDIX. 



[!.•] 



The mind of the Father said that all things 
should be cut into three. His will assented, and 
immediately all things were cut. 

The Father mingled every spirit from this 
Triad. 

All things are governed in the bosom of this 
Triad. 

All things are governed and subsist in these 
three. 

For you may conceive that all things serve these 
three principles. 

For in the whole world shineih a Triad, over 
which a Monad rules. — Oracles of Zoroaster. 



APPENDIX. 157 



[M. ] 



'^ The age of gold^ wJiich^ until no7Vy a blind tra- 
dition has placed in the past^ is before us. The 
future shows itself to the eyes of the nations^ not 
as a dangerous rock, but as a harbor. Until now, 
men have always bequeathed the love and admi- 
ration of the past to their descendants. Tor- 
mented with a desire for happiness which it seem- 
ed impossible to realize on the earth as it is, they 
turned their thoughts to the past, or toward 
Heaven. They consoled themselves with chi- 
meras. But, in spite of its leaders, of its moral- 
ists, of its artists, of its poets, the human race 
has grown stronger from day to day ; it has de- 
veloped itself in a slow, but continuous advance. 
It has shown to its false prophets, it has revealed, 
so to say, to itself, that the ages have not been 
lost for it, and that it has reason to hope for a fu- 
ture which shall be far more glorious than the 
times of its infancy. Society, since it has ex- 
isted, has never made a single step backward. 
Its development has sometimes been retarded, but 
no power of man has ever been able to stop it. 
Let us leave the past to itself, for we have preach- 

14 



IBS Ai>iPMi>ix. 

ed a sufficient number of long and beautiful funeral 
orations over it. Let us not despise, but learn 
how to appreciate it ; for it has brought us to our 
present condition, and it opens before us an easy 
road toward a most glorious future. But let us 
keep our eyes always turned toward the future. 
Let us advance, according to the fine expression 
of an ancient poet, as a single JUan^ inscribing 
on our pacific banners : (he Terrestrial Paradise 
is htfore us ! 

^^Hm^i Ae Saint Simula. 



APPENDIX, 16a 



[]V. ] 



*'The Fathers of the Church believed — and 
not without some appearance of reason — that the 
heathen derived their notions of the mystery e^ 
the Divine Nature from the Sacred Scriptures, 
from Moses and the Prophets. But to maintafn 
such a proposition at the present day, now that 
we possess the sacred books of India, would be 
the height of folly. The idea of God — Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit — is the same with the idea 
of Being, as it is explained in the Indian Meta- 
physics : and will you maintain that the Jews, who 
had no metaphysical science, who have left us no 
treatise in this department, were the original in- 
ventors of this theology ? How could the Tndianai 
have borrowed their theology from the Jews, 
when it is evident that this theology is the mqr^ 
result, and logical consequence, of theifowp picjt- 
aphyisics ? 

*^ I tell you that it is through Egypt and Plato, 
that the doctrine of the Word made its ^ntraqce 
into Christianity — has become Christianity. ThJl 



160 APPENDIX. 

truth is so certain, 1 may say so evident, ibat I 
cannot understand how any one can have the face 
to deny it. 

'' I tell you, morover, that all the different re- 
ligions are identical, when you examine ihem in 
their metaphysical foundations, and that they dif- 
fer only in form. I tell you that the Word of the 
Christians, is the Word of Plato, the Word of the 
Polylheists, the Word of Lao-Tseu, the Word 
of the Egyiians, the Word of the Indians. I tell 
you that this notion of the Word, or rather of the 
Trinity, or, to use the language of the Christian 
Fathers, of the three hypostases of God, is the 
foundation of all metaphysics, and consequently of 
all philosophy, and of all religion. To understand 
the Life of the mc, of the individual being, and 
thence to raise ourselves to the knowledge of our 
relations with the Being of beings, to the knowl- 
edge of our destiny, and of our immortality, that 
is the true field of religion. To believe, therefore^ 
God to be at once one and triple^ because loe find 
this unity and this triplicity in every manifestation 
of Life^ whether in ourselves, or in external na- 
ture, that is what is imposed upon us as the very 
foundation of religion 



* * * * 



*' Admit, therefore, as you must, that w^e have, 
from this day forward, the right to conclude, solely 



I 



APPENDIX. 161 

from history, and independently of any purely 
metaphysical demonstration, that the Christians 
are not the only persons who have known the true 
nature of God ! 

'' Now if other men have known it before them, 
how can you cut off these other men, as you do, 
from the religious tradition ? Do you dare to say 
that ihey have known the true nature of God, and 
that they have, notwithstanding, not known the 
true religion ? 

'' Behold how incomplete and false is your tra- 
dition, hmiied, as it is, to the Jewish-Christian 
line ! Take away in thought from the human 
race, as you attempt to do from the true religion, 
India, Chaldea, Persia, and Egypt, take away 
Pythagoras and Plato, and say, if you dare, that 
Christianity could have been established, that 
Christianity would have been possible ! It would 
be like taking from a river, not only its source, 
but also all the tributaries which enrich it. 

'' On the contrary, restore to India, to Persia, 
to Egypt, to the Greek Philosophy, all that 
Christianity has borrowed from them, and say if 
there will remain to Christianity any thing it can 



162 APPENDIX. 

call its own,* that is to say, anything whose germ 
did not pre-exist in humanity. 

4c * * * * 'pjjg jjg^jg Qf religion is eternal, for 
that basis is the subjective knowledge we possess 



* Leroux goes too far, when he says Christianity hasj 
nothing it can call its own. It is now generally admitted, 
we confess, that there is no nooral or religious precept 
whatever, written down in the gospels, which was not 
expressed and written down, centuries before our Lord 
appeared in the world. It is evident, therefore, that 
Christianity is not original^ so far as its morals are con- 
cerned. Again, we think it will we established that our 
Lord taught no metaphysical doctrine which was not 
known to the Philosophers before became — if this be done, 
it will be evident that Christianity is not original, so far 
as its metaphysical doctrine is concerned. Nevertheless 
Christianity is the true religion, the religion established 
on earth at the consummation of the time, by the direct in- 
terposition of Providence. Wherein then, consists its 
originality 1 It consists in this : our Lord came, not a^ 
a mere teacher of Metaphysics and Morality, but as a. 
Saviour — he came to save such as were lost. He brought 
a power and a Divine Life from the Father, which he com- 
municates to those who believe in him. Men could under- 
stand the doctrine of Life w ithout the crucifixion of Christ, 
but it was not enough to understand it ; men were hunger- 
ing and thirsting for the reception of the Divine Life, and 
it was not enough for them to know they were dying — 
they required the bread which cometh down from heaven. 
Our Lord came, and proclaimed to the world : '* As the 
Living Father hath sent me, and i live ry the 
Father, so he that eateth me spiritually, even he 
SHALL LIVE BY ME. John vi. 56. and this proclamation 
has been verified to every one that has gone to Christ, for 
from him is transmitted the Divine Life. 



APPENDIX. i68 

of Life : but the objective manifestation which 
resuhs from this basis, is variable, and changes 
according to the progress of our knowledge. 

'' Will you maintain that religion can be the 
same throughout the ages ! ! ! Can man, in all 
the periods of civilization, have the same objective 
knowledge of God and of himself! But, in this 
case, we would always have the same man ! If 
you. Catholic, should think identically of God and 
eternal life, as a Christian of the first century 
would have thought, you would be neither more 
nor less than a Christian of the first century, and 
you would not be a man of our times. * 



* * * * * 



cc 



Thanks to eighteen hundred years of eflx)rts 
and sufferings, we are beginning to bring matter 
under our control, to use it as a servant ; the 
forces of nature begin to be subjected lo us, and 
we foresee the moment when the struggle of 
Man against nature, shall be terminated by the 
victory of intelligence. How can we, like the 
Christians, anathematize the world and nature, 
seeking an insipid life independently of the con- 
ditions of the world ? A man who, like St. 
Paul, and all the apostles, should preach enthusi- 



164 APPENDIX. 

astically the doctrine of the immediate end of the 
world, would be not only laughed at, but treated 
as a madman.'*" Pierre Leroiix. — Christianity, 



1' 



It is probable that Leroux never heard of Father Miller. 

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